ROAD accidents kill more schoolchildren in East Lancashire than serious illness.

Now, high school teachers across the region are planning to give their pupils vital lessons in life -- and death -- in a pioneering project.

Last year 61 people were killed and 890 badly hurt on Lancashire's roads. Thirteen of the fatal accident victims and more than 200 of the seriously injured were teenagers.

In a bid to combat the tragic toll of youngsters, Lancashire County Council's Road Safety Group is to unleash a new 'weapon' in local schools.

The Legal Weapon project will tackle the causes of road crashes and encourage pupils to be more responsible for their own actions and heed road safety rules. It will also target young drivers among the modern apprentice workforce.

The initiative will form part of the road safety group's Theatre in Education project, which will sponsor a stage company to tour high schools across East Lancashire this month

Their production will aim to increase teachers' confidence in delivering road safety education.

And it will use stylised physical theatre techniques to interact with the young audience to provide a hard-hitting account of the impact of death on the road.

County Councillor Nora Ward, highways and transportation boss at County Hall, said: "More young people are killed or maimed on the roads each year than through any other reason. The road safety group is working hard to encourage students to be more aware of the consequences of their actions on the road.

"This waste of young lives cannot be ignored."

The Legal Weapon production will be staged at Haslingden High School tomorrow, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School on Wednesday and Habergham High School, Burnley, on October 17.