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A Report from the “Drive 4 Safety” Seminar

Read Miranda Harvey’s report on the Drive 4 Safety Seminar organised by Strathclyde Police.  The theme was young road users and how to make them safer drivers

Wednesday 18th June 2008 at the Glasgow IMAX Cinema in Glasgow

Car crashThis was an event run by Strathclyde Police whose “patch” covers twelve local authority areas.  The event was also used by the Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson to launch a new Road Safety Scotland leaflet aimed at parents called, “So Your Teenager is Learning to Drive?”

The audience of about 330 was largely made up of S6 pupils from 34 West of Scotland secondary schools.  The remainder seemed to be mostly road safety officers and police officers.  There is a statutory duty to provide road safety advice and information and road safety officers are based either within the transport/environmental affairs departments of local councils or they are employed directly by police authorities. 

There are a variety of resources provided to schools from the presentation shown during the day to “Crash Magnets” which are delivered to pupils by guidance teachers.

One of the reasons for all this activity is the shocking level of fatalities and injuries caused by road crashes.  In the 17-25 age group the most likely cause of death for young women is a young male driver.  It is also the one period in a man’s life when he is more likely to die in a road crash than from any kind of disease.  Young drivers actually account for only 10% of the driving population, but are involved in 30% of serious accidents.  Another frightening statistic is the within the first six months of passing their test, one in five young drivers will be involved in some kind of crash.

Many of the speakers at the seminar stressed the positives about learning to drive, for example the independence and possibilities it opens up for young people.  A traffic psychologist pointed out that it is not just being young that makes this group so vulnerable, but also their inexperience.  Learners drivers are incredibly safe as they are supervised and young drivers are generally highly competent.  What they lack is experience, which helps them identify and react to risks.  It was suggested that parents can help manage this risk by:

  1. Encouraging young drivers to get road experience when it is safe (eg, during the daytime, in good weather, in good traffic conditions).
  2. Negotiating car use so that risk factors such as driving at night, in poor weather, at weekends and/or with other young passengers are limited.  Obviously, this is easier while young people only have access to the family car.
  3. Accompanying young drivers when they are learning to deal with new situations such as motorway driving, adverse weather conditions and night-time driving.
  4. Encouraging them to switch off mobile phones including hands-free and MP3 players.
  5. Discussing with them how to handle peer pressure so they can stick to the law on seatbelts, speed and/or alcohol – without losing face.

There are several websites which may be of interest; these are listed at the end of my report.

The afternoon session was largely given over to a presentation called: “Reckless Driving Wrecks Lives” from South Ayrshire Council.  This included a video drama of a serious crash and it identified what led up to the crash and how it impacted on the emergency services that had to deal with it.  The video was interspersed with real-life accounts from the police, ambulance, fire and A&E staff.  We also heard from a young man who is now wheelchair-bound and two bereaved parents.  This part of the day was quite harrowing.

There was quite a lot of discussion about how regulations and control could prevent traffic accidents.  Newly-qualified drivers are already more highly-regulated than others, for example, if you lose six points off your licence within two years of passing your test, then you have to start again as a provisional licence holder.  (Just think of the shame for your son/daughter if that happened! Ed) 
In fact, there is a consultation on driver training and testing at www.dsa.gov.uk/learningtodrive   Several people in the audience were in favour of restricting or graduating what newly-qualified drivers can do, which has been specifically excluded from this consultation.

We were told about training schemes which are offered by Pass Plus, the Institute of Advanced Motorists and RoSPA supporting newly-qualified drivers.  Some of these schemes are subsidised by local authorities and/or lead to reduced insurance premiums.

Finally, the greatest help that any parent can be to encourage their teenager to be a safe driver is to be a good driver themselves; children from a very young age learn to imitate their parents’ driving styles.  Apparently, driving instructors can immediately tell which youngsters have parents that drive with one hand on the gear stick!  So, by being strict about wearing a seatbelt from an early age, children learn to put them on as a matter of course – this is a huge lifesaver.

We were given some useful website addresses:

Report by Miranda Harvey
SPTC Director

Thursday 19 June 2008

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