More than 2,000 students from schools across the area attended sessions about road safety arranged by the council.

Crucial Crew workshops for Year 6 students were at the Bolton Army Reserve Centre on Nelson Street last month.

Crucial Crew invites a range of professionals to talk to children about issues such as anti-social behaviour, mental health, online safety and road safety.

The sessions about road safety arranged by the council last month saw children respond to a scenario where someone was hit by a car, before talking through the scenario and taking advice on the situation.

The Bolton News:

Cllr Stuart Haslam, the cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "It's important to learn road safety from an early age to gain an understanding of how to act responsibly.

"It's great for the children to have the opportunity to take part in these interactive workshops, learning important skills that are not taught in the classroom, whilst having fun.

"So many road accidents happen every day.

"It's important for us to do what we can to educate children to ensure their safety as much as possible."

In Bolton, the number of people '"killed or seriously injured" (KSIs) on the area's roads increased around 68 per cent last year, according to data.

READ MORE: Bolton: Police explain increase in casualties on roads.

The data, from a Corporate Dashboard published by the council, showed there were more than 100 KSIs reported in the 12 months up to May last year, up from 60 KSIs reported in the 12 months previous.

Some of this rise is attributable to the end of coronavirus restrictions, as traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels over this period.

But more than 100 KSIs is a rise on the four years before coronavirus restrictions, when the average was around 82 KSIs a year.

Police said the increase came at the same time as the adoption of a system called Collision Recording and Sharing (CRASH), which saw some injuries once categorised as "slight" now categorised as "serious".

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.