A Bradford mother helped to launch a national road safety campaign by revealing how she thought her “world had stopped” when she saw her badly-injured son lying in the road.

Bingley Grammar School pupil Gabriel Dillon celebrated his 12th birthday today – a landmark that seemed unlikely in the immediate aftermath of an accident involving a bus near his home in Main Street, Wilsden.

His mother Emma Dillon is used to attending serious road accidents in her job as a police sergeant, but the 30-year-old said nothing could have prepared her for the traumatic events of October 18 this year.

Sgt Dillon, who works for Airedale and North Bradford Police, was speaking during the launch of the Government’s £1.5m THINK! campaign, which aims to teach six to 11-year-olds to stop, look and listen.

She said: “On the day it happened, there was a knock on the door. I opened it and nobody was there so I stepped outside and, before I even saw Gabriel lying in the road, I knew he had been knocked down.

“Words can’t describe how I felt. He was laid with blood coming from under his head asking me if he was going to die. The world stopped for me.

“He had not looked. He thinks he looked but I know for a fact that he didn’t. He walked in front of a stationary vehicle which is a primary causation for most accidents involving child pedestrians and then just stepped out straight in front of an oncoming bus.

“He’s very lucky because he nearly wasn’t here. It could have been so much worse.”

Gabriel, who is still off school and will undergo a brain scan next week, said: “I remember crossing the road, seeing the bus and thinking ‘oh no’ and I remember lying on the floor.

“I remember being hit and the impact and I can remember my head throbbing.”

Figures show that 58 children were killed or seriously injured on the roads in Bradford last year, the highest figure for any area in West Yorkshire.

A total of 43 children were killed or seriously injured in Leeds, 30 in Kirklees and 19 in Calderdale.

The Government’s new campaign will use animated characters to tell a series of cautionary tales, each focusing on a different aspect of road safety. The first advert, ‘The Boy Who Did Not Stop, Look and Listen’, will air from Monday and will be accompanied by a new website with interactive games for children.

e-mail: will.kilner@telegraphandargus.co.uk