Teenage road casualties 2000

70 killed 1,700 seriously injured 7,500 minor injuries

About 70 teenage pedestrians were killed in 2000, while over 9,000 were injured.

Transport minister David Jamieson said teenagers were especially at risk when out with friends, and thinking about other things.

"I hope young people will be able to identify with this and keep road safety in mind, every time they are out.

"We have chosen this time of year to launch the advert as the weather will start to get warmer and the evenings lighter."

Car-based culture

A previous road safety campaign aimed at children, the Green Cross Code campaign, which was launched in the 1970s, almost halved the number of pedestrian deaths on the roads within a decade.

Parents tend to transport [children] around in the car and they don't get very much experience of actually being a pedestrian

Sue Virgin, Road Safety Officer

Road safety officer Sue Virgin, from Dorchester in Dorset, told BBC News today's teenagers still needed to be taught how to cross the road.

She said young people were particularly vulnerable because "their minds are so full of everything else, their social life and everything - they've just forgotten how dangerous roads can be.

"We still need to do the Green Cross Code with teenagers, but in a different way. I don't think they'll take very kindly to us showing them videos of hedgehogs, because they're much more sophisticated than that.

"We're such a car-based culture these days - when the teenagers are younger, parents tend to transport them around in the car and they don't get very much experience of actually being a pedestrian.

"Even parents are very bad at being pedestrians, because we do drive about in our cars."

The 50-second advert will be shown in cinemas from Friday until May.

It is part of the government's ongoing "Think" road safety campaign, which has included calls for drivers to cut their speeds, and for greater use of child car seats.