Road safety award for South Yorkshire young driver campaign

The Drive for Life project run by the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership received a Bronze award at this year's First Car Young Driver Road Safety Awards held last week.

In an event hosted by First Car Publishing, the project received the Bronze award in the Partnership Scheme category, which was entered by a large number of other similar schemes from across Great Britain.

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Now in its second decade, 'Drive for Life' has been presented to thousands of young drivers, students and apprentices, with over 6,000 young people having  experienced the presentation in just this academic year alone.

The free two hour presentation is aimed primarily at young people in the 17 to 24 age group prior to them gaining a driving licence or shortly after they have passed their driving test.

The sessions are geared to making young people aware of their responsibilities as drivers as well as raising awareness of issues that might contribute to road traffic collisions. It examines and attempts to alter attitudes and behaviour in an effort to make the youngsters safer and more considerate drivers.

Rather than a lecture, the presentations, which include input from the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, experienced traffic officers from South Yorkshire Police and road safety officers from the local authorities, consist of poignant first-hand accounts from local parents, family members or friends who have been affected by a death or serious injury to someone close to them in a collision. The presentations also include interactive scenarios that cover issues such as drink and drug driving, speed, peer pressure and seat belt usage.

Project Manager John Scruby described the award as a "fantastic achievement" by the whole team and for the Safer Roads Partnership as a whole.

John, who is pictured left with James Evans, the Editor of First Car magazine,  added: "To receive a nationally- recognised award is testament to the efforts of all those involved in our attempts to reduce the number of casualties throughout South Yorkshire within the young driver category. It was an achievement in itself to be shortlisted, given the high standard of entries from other schemes, and so to win this award gives us all a great sense of pride in our work."

Joanne Wehrle, Education Manager for the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership, described the award as a "great acknowledgement" of all the hard work carried out by the team and the Safer Roads Partnership as a whole.

She added: "Drive for Life is a hard-hitting, emotional and thought-provoking scheme that aims to try and rebalance the  collision statistics in this particular age group, which are over-represented in fatal and serious injury collisions right across the country.

"In South Yorkshire they make up only seven per cent of the driving population. But unfortunately, they are involved in more than 33 per cent of all fatal crashes in the region."

The presentation is available free of charge to all schools, colleges, academies and any local businesses with apprentice schemes running throughout South Yorkshire.

Further information about the scheme is available by contacting John Scruby, Road Safety Officer, on 01709 254494 or [email protected]. Any driver, particularly young drivers, wanting to test their driving knowledge should have a look for the Drive4Life app at www.driveforlifechallenge.co.uk