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Wasted Lives: Sign the petition
11:17am Thursday 5th April 2007
Today the Lancashire Telegraph makes a special plea to its readers.
We want you to get behind an initiative which we believe can start to cut the horrific death toll among young drivers and their passengers.
Yesterday we launched our Wasted Lives campaign, along with the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety.
Now we are asking YOU to make a difference by signing our petition backing the legislative and educational aims of the campaign (outlined below>.
The reasons to get behind our efforts are, we believe, powerful and overwhelming.
Yesterday we published 20 stark facts highlighting the extent and nature of the problem.
These included:
* Although only one in eight licence holders are under 25, one in four road deaths involve this group.
* Nearly every two weeks a person under 25 dies on county roads.
* Ten times more males under 25 died on the county's roads last year than females.
* One in three males between 17 and 20 crash within two years of passing their test.
* A young driver is 85 per cent more likely to crash when he has two or more passengers.
Looking at all of the statistics, the scale of the problem is much worse than perhaps any of us would have supposed.
This campaign is not about waging war on the young.
It is about protecting them, sometimes from themselves, giving them a better driving education - but also increasing the penalties if they fail to be responsible.
It's about making sure they go on to live full lives, unlike Matthew Hannon who died, at just 22, when he crashed while racing a friend in Blackburn.
His parents yesterday spoke of the utter devastation caused by their loss.
Their bravery is one of the catalysts for this campaign.
Already East Lancashire's MPs, the police and community leaders have thrown their weight behind us.
But it's YOU that will really make the difference.
We want to put together a deafening protest the government will have to take note of.
So please sign our petition by filling in your details below and help us to save lives.
I'm backing the campaign
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