London's Oxford Street came to a standstill on Saturday as thousands of cyclists and pedestrians marched behind a horse-drawn hearse in memory of the victims of traffic violence.

The event was organised to demand safer roads and segregated cycle lanes.

Christmas shoppers looked on respectfully as the mock funeral cortege slowly wound its way along London's most famous high street under overcast skies.

At Marble Arch the cortege came to a halt and an empty coffin from the hearse was placed on the traffic island.

To the sounds of a lone piper, the protesters lay down on the wet paving to symbolise the 76,000 pedestrians, cyclists and motorists killed on the roads and by pollution over the last decade.

Dominique Vesco, who travelled from France to attend the event, brought many in the crowd to tears as she described the moment when she was told her 19-year-old daughter Marie had died after being knocked off her bicycle by one car and then being run over by another.

"No-one was prosecuted," she said.

Ms Vesco told the Star that Britain "must adopt the same policy as the other European countries and introduce strict liability for motorists who are involved in collisions with vulnerable road users."

Oxford Street traffic victim Tom Kearney, who spent a month in a near-death coma after being hit in the head and chest by a 15-ton bus in 2009, told the protesters this could have been his funeral too.

"I am one of thousands who have been killed or seriously injured by a TfL bus since Boris Johnson became chairman of Transport for London," he said.

"Road conditions are lethal for cyclists and pedestrians all over the country."

He said that TfL public officials should be held accountable for road safety, not speed of traffic.

Stop the Killing Coalition, which organised Saturday's protest, calls for "human-friendly roads and public spaces, major investment in pedestrian and cycle infrastructure, and action on carbon emissions."