YORKSHIRE quarry operators have joined forces with the emergency services in a vital child safety campaign.

The Quarry Products Association's 'Play Safe...Stay Safe' initiative will warn children of the dangers of trespassing into quarries to swim or play.

Eight people die in quarry accidents each year and many more suffer serious injuries, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

There are more than 60 working quarries in Yorkshire, making it a key target for the campaign.

Police, fire and ambulance services are supporting the association in warning children, parents and schoolteachers that quarries can be lethal to young children and other trespassers.

Elizabeth Clements, of Quarry Products Association, said: "Every summer our members have instances of youngsters breaking down, or climbing over fences to go swimming in quarry lakes. Others climb the quarry face, tunnel into huge piles of sand or climb onto machinery.

"Tragically that's when they discover the water is freezing cold, with strong undercurrents. Or they may slip on a loose surface and break limbs, or get struck by falling rocks. Children have suffocated when sand collapsed on top of them as they dug tunnels and others have been injured when they fell from machinery."

Mrs Clements said many of the accidents occur at weekends and evenings and it may be a long time before a child is discovered.

She added: "Quarries are places for work not play. We cannot relax our guard for a moment because if we do a child may be killed or injured in a quarry somewhere and one incident like that is too many."

Eric Clark, chief fire officer of North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, said: "Firefighters all too often have to risk their own lives in order to rescue children who have become trapped or injured as a consequence of playing in a quarry. The campaign is important and deserves every success.

"We have to do all we can to persuade children of the very real dangers that any quarry can present them."