When a young person gets behind the wheel of a car for the first time no matter how many lessons they’ve had, they’re often under-prepared for what’s ahead.

Unusual driving conditions, motorways, peer pressure. They all play their part in an experience which becomes entirely different from the controlled conditions of a lesson or test.

Unfortunately, many young people get caught up in the pressure of driving too fast, not wearing seatbelts or taking life-threatening risks.

That’s where the Lancashire Telegraph’s Wasted Lives initiative, launched in 2007, stepped in.

The campaign aimed to stop the carnage of young drivers on our roads.

Now, its message has been shared with 50,000 young people, challenging drivers aged 16 to 24 to think about the risks they take and providing a wake-up call about the consequences of their actions.

The Wasted Lives campaign has even been praised for helping to reduce the number of young people killed or seriously injured on the roads in Lancashire by 37 per cent.

We just hope this excellent campaign carries on saving lives.