HUNDREDS of Dorset schoolchildren are set to get life-saving lessons in road safety.

Battens Solicitors Charitable Trust has teamed up with the SafeWise safety education partnership to provide training packs and free interactive resources for pupils.

The £18,000 initiative will enable schools to hire a ‘Street Feet’ simulated road layout free of charge.

It comes with traffic signs and illustrated ‘vehicle’ vests for children to use in a hands-on role-play.

The trust is writing to more than 100 primary schools across Dorset to advise them of the scheme and has already pledged 40 cash donations in support, totalling £8,000.

It comes after a dramatic reduction in the Department for Transport’s national budget for primary age road safety promotion.

The government cut, from £3.78 million in 2009/2010 to just £78,000 in 2012/2013, has seen the scrapping of familiar television advertising including well known safety characters such as ‘Green Cross Code Man’.

Dorset Police dealt with 2,415 casualties on Dorset’s roads last year including 24 deaths and 369 people seriously injured. Stuart Allen, one of the trustees and a director of Battens, said: “As there has been such a huge fall in funding for children’s road safety, we want to do what we can.

“We do a lot of compensation work for clients and we have seen the devastation that road traffic accidents can bring to families.

“We know teachers are best placed to help children learn in a safe way about how to make responsible decisions when they are out and about.”

Battens Charitable Trust was set up to aid community causes. Last year, the trust donated more than £31,000 to charities throughout Dorset and Somerset.