Richmond is one of the safest areas in England for children using the roads, research has revealed.

The borough has an accident rate of one child in 1,038.

It was second only to Kensington and Chelsea with a rate of one in 1,158.

The Shetland Islands was third at 1,024.

The national average was 427.

Preston is the most dangerous area for child road accidents, with one child in every 206 being injured in a crash, said research group Road Safety Analysis.

Liverpool came close behind with 234, followed by Barrow Borough in the north West with 238.

Children most at risk are those from families "on lower incomes who often live in large council estates", said the group.

The work used postcodes to compare risk levels among children aged up to 15 across 408 local authority areas.

Based on five years and covering more than 120,000 road casualties, it showed over their first 16 years of life, one in 27 children will be reported as injured or killed in a collision.

Dan Campsall, director of Road Safety Analysis, said: "Children in some areas experience considerably higher risk from road traffic crashes than others who might be living just over the border."