A FAMOUS old advertising slogan has been revived as part of a major new road safety campaign across the North-East.

Clunk, Click - Every Trip, which was first aired as a public information film on TV in the 1970s, will feature in a new push to encourage drivers and their passengers to always wear seatbelts.

The campaign which is being run by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association (Larsoa), involves a series of five hard-hitting radio adverts which look at the possible consequences of not wearing a seatbelt.

If successful organisers hope to get the slogan resurrected nationally.

Speaking at the launch at the Gateshead MetroCentre yesterday, Hartlepool Borough Council's road safety team leader, Paul Watson, said: "It has been two generations since the slogan was last heard.

"It is so easy to remember - there are just four words

"There is a need to resurrect some of the old public information films, particularly the road safety ones - thought you don't necessarily need someone in lycra teaching you to cross the road."

The latest adverts focus not only on the need for adults to wear seatbelts, but also the importance of children being secured in suitable restraints. They will be aired regionally on Galaxy and the Metro Radio stations over a four-week period this month and next.

One of the adverts uses the mental image of the life being crushed out of an unrestrained child by an adult in a vehicle during an accident.

Another invites listeners to picture a parent who was wearing a seatbelt, sitting back as a child who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, is thrown into the road after a collision.

Alan Kennedy, Durham road safety section manager and chairman of Larsoa in the North-East, said: "This hard-hitting campaign aims to directly target those drivers and passengers who continue to travel unrestrained.

"It is also intended to prick the consciences of those adults who irresponsibly transport unrestrained children in cars.

"Very young children do not understand the dangers, we as adults must protect them.

"Many lives would be saved every year if we all clunk, clicked everytime we got into a car."

Seatbelt information packs and fluorescent seatbelt pads will also be issued to drivers to support the radio advert campaign.

It is hoped the pads which can be attached to vehicles' seatbelts will act as a conspicuous and permanent reminder of the importance of wearing a seatbelt.

It is estimated that over 50,000 lives have been saved nationally as a result of seatbelt laws coming into force.