Pupils of two Somerset primary schools have been given florescent jackets after a coroner urged for them to be introduced in the wake of a teenager’s death.

Elliott Davies, 13, was killed when a car skidded on ice near his home in the village of Wedmore, near Cheddar, as he waited for the school bus. At an inquest into his death, a coroner said all children walking to school on country roads should be supplied with high-visibility jackets.

Yesterday, pupils at Meare, near Wedmore, and Wookey, near Wells, primary schools were presented with jackets in the hope it would inspire others to do the same. The move was instigated by mother Jane Bowe and her accountancy firm ProBusiness in Wells, which paid Glastonbury supplier Glow Safe to provide the jackets.

Nick Roper of travel information firm www.tripview.co.uk agreed to share the costs of providing gilets for the schools.

He said: “Somerset County Council backed the coroner’s stand in encouraging school pupils to wear reflective jackets and we decided to do something about it as quickly as possible. Tripview is a new web-based service that will allow schools, groups and individuals to publish details of trips, treks and events online. We are very concerned about safety of school groups travelling abroad, so we thought this would be a good contribution to make here at home.”