A NEW road safety programme for young drivers could be rolled out to every high school within the next year. We attended the pilot for the project which is designed to teach the drivers of tomorrow how to stay safe on East Lancashire’s roads.

THE PILOT road safety training course to create safer drivers was given the thumbs up by all the youngsters who took part.

The pre-driver training days gave 15 to 17 year olds the opportunity to learn about road safety by informing them how a single bad decision, such as not wearing a seat belt or speeding, could result in a serious if not fatal crash.

The course, which included an educational and driving program-me, was designed for those aged 17 and below and was tested by 27 youngsters. It was created by Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Casualty Reduction Team to cut crashes involving young people.

One of the organisers Steve Johnson, a firefighter, took the teenagers through the consequ-ences of actions such as drink and drug driving.

The Casualty Reduction Team is trying to encourage every school in Blackburn with Darwen to join the educational programme. So far Blakewater College and Witton Park High School have signed up.

And Mr Johnson said the driving package, where youngsters can have a go at driving a vehicle, could be used as an extra curricular activity or a reward system.

It is hoped a similar programme will eventually become part of a graduated driving licence which is one of the key aims of the Lancashire Telegraph’s Wasted Lives campaign.

Wasted Lives has proposed a number of legislative and educational reforms – including the introduction of graduated licences – in a bid to stop the carnage of the under 25s who die in crashes each year.

Mr Johnson said: “The educat-ional package is about giving youngsters the information to make choices.

“I give them information, statist-ics and show them the conseq-uences of doing certain things such as not wearing a seat belt.

“A male is six times more likely to die than a young girl.

“We give people coping strategies of how they can save their lives.

“We are trying to get the message across so youngsters can make the choices from that information.

“The message is pay attention or pay the price. They are the passengers of today but they are the drivers of tomorrow. ”

The youngsters were given a presentation Too Young To Die tailored from material from road safety charity Brake where Mr Johnson informed the teenagers about the consequences of not wearing a seat belt, speeding and drink driving.

They were then shown 10 one-minute clips from a series of road safety adverts which show the consequences of driving too fast.

Mr Johnson allocated roles, such as parent and driver, found in the clips, to discuss how a youngster would feel as the parent of a dead child, or the driver of the car that killed them.

Then, with the help of driving schools such as 3 in 1 Driving and Driving@davemarm, the youngst-ers had a taste of driving in a car park at the back of Blakewater College, Blackburn, as well as a hazard awareness session.

St Wilfrid's CofE High School and Technology College pupil Hannah Dean, 16, from Blackburn, said: “The videos were absolutely shock-ing. It made me more aware of the dangers on the road.”

Hazel Johnson, 16, of Accring-ton, said: “It is quite educational. I didn’t realise how much you have to think about when driving.”

Joanna Costin, 15, of Preston, said: “I have really enjoyed it.

“It makes you appreciate all the stuff that’s going on in the road.”

Martin Smith, of 3 in 1 Driving said: “We need to tell youngsters it is not cool to take other people’s lives. I think it should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum.”