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Road safety drive to tackle accidents

13/09/07

In a bid to reduce the number of fatal accidents involving young people in Cumbria, a road awareness event is being staged in the county, which may give advice on how to keep car insurance premiums intact.

The county council and members of the emergency services will team up with bereaved parents in the area to raise awareness of crashes involving younger motorists.

Road safety charity Brake will also be sending representatives to the region to deliver presentations in schools about the benefits of safe motoring.

Mary Williams OBE, chief executive of Brake said: "It is so important to educate young people about safe driving to tackle the appalling carnage on our roads."

She added that young people in the UK are responsible for many accidents which occur on the country's roads, often as a result of inexperience and risk-taking behaviour - potentially also risking car insurance claims.

Many youngsters fail to learn about road safety because such training is "appallingly" not compulsory, despite crashes being the number one cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds, Ms Williams stated.

She concluded that she hoped the road safety drive, in collaboration with FedEx, would help fill the gap in young people's knowledge and deepen their awareness of road issues.

"By educating young people face-to-face, we're getting the message across that risk-taking behind the wheel kills, and empowering young people to protect themselves, their friends and other road users."

Over the summer the government televised a number of advertisements about why drink-driving could be a hazard on the roads as well as affecting motorists' lives.

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