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Search forStudents get lesson in driving with care
Monday, December 01, 2008, 14:55
The Young Drivers Education Programme – now in its 11th year – is aimed at year 12 students.
It is designed to inform and influence the next generation of drivers, allowing them to make educated decisions about safer driving.
In 2007 in Cornwall 616 car and motorcycle casualties were aged 17 to 24. Nineteen of these were injured as a result of accidents in Newquay.
Carol Wright, senior road safety project co-ordinator said: "Young drivers in the 17 to 24-year-old age range are a very vulnerable, inexperienced group, involved in disproportionately high numbers of collisions on our roads and research indicates that one in five drivers have a collision in the first year after passing their driving test."
Of the 616 casualties mentioned previously, 142 were car passengers or motorcycle pillions.
The education programme highlights a variety of issues in a one-day series of classroom workshops designed to appeal to students in the vulnerable age group.
The hard-hitting workshops use a mixture of DVDs, worksheets, problem-solving exercises, role play, practical demonstrations and discussions to focus on knowledge, attitudes and risk perception.
Cllr Matt McTaggart, Cornwall County Council's executive member for strategic planning and transport, said: "The county council's road safety unit works in partnership with the Driving Standards Agency, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, Cornwall Fire Brigade and Trading Standards to bring the programme to establishments in Cornwall and make young drivers more knowledgeable about the risks and hazards they face on the roads and ways in which to combat them."
Carol said that the programme "aims to alert students to the dangers of driving and enable them to take responsibility for their own and other's safety by making informed decisions about driving safely".
At the end of the workshops students were given an evaluation sheet giving them the opportunity to comment on the value of each session, and the day as a whole.
● For pictures of the event, see next week's Newquay Guardian.
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