AN INVENTOR has created motion powered lights after the death of a close friend’s sister one bonfire night.

Tom Lawton from Malmesbury created Million Mile Lights, a battery free light that’s powered by motion to enable vulnerable road users to be seen in low light.

The hand held lights uses the energy from walking or running, with Tom focusing on handing them out to school children to illuminate them on their walk to school during the winter.

Tom was inspired to design the lights after he experienced the shock of a close friend’s sister being killed by a car one bonfire night.

Helen Baldwin, aged 12, was killed while walking along an unlit country road in the village Yatton Keynell with friends.

Tom said: “Three kids were hit by this car and it rocked the community like you couldn’t imagine. Helen was walking through the village with her friends, and they obviously didn’t have a pavement or reflectors on and a car mowed them down.

“These experiences sit with you for years and years and you contemplate how you could make that safe.

“As I’ve had children in the last 10 years I’m very mindful of how I can keep them safe, I don’t want to take them everywhere in the car and I don’t want to tell them they can’t do things.

“We’re getting to that time of year when you’re in a rural community, your very aware of how dangerous the roads can be.”

Tom has been backed by the Safer Roads Foundation, a UK-based charity with a mission to improve road safety around the world.

“We’ve got something that’s got the potential to save lives where there aren’t the right road safety provisions in the developing world where the statistics are quite alarming about dangers on the road," Tom added.

The lights will give youngsters more of a reason to walk to school, reducing the need for car journeys by parents, reducing levels of pollution around school gates.

To buy the light, go to batteryfree.com.