First speakers confirmed for Young Driver Focus 2016

Road-Safety-Experience-fly-through 2 from KentFireRescue on Vimeo.

The first confirmed presentation for Young Driver Focus 2016 will showcase what is claimed to be the UK’s “first purpose built, interactive (road safety education) centre”.

Alexa Kersting-Woods and Alan Faulkner, from Kent Fire and Rescue Service, will present the Road Safety Experience, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open by Easter 2016.

The Road Safety Experience is being developed to help young people learn from the experience of others, and equip them to make better decisions in all driver and passenger situations. It will comprise a combination of “powerful stories, exciting interactive experiences and information from experienced road safety experts” to encourage young people to look at the potential consequences of a collision from all perspectives – themselves, their passengers, other drivers and their families. It will be provided free of charge to all schools, colleges and groups in Kent and Medway, and will accommodate supervised education visits, lasting five hours, for groups of up to 85 young people.

Alexa Kersting-Woods is Kent Fire and Rescue Service’s lead for road safety. She sits on the local casualty reduction board and provides support to the Chief Fire Officer Association’s (CFOA) road safety practitioners.

Alan Faulkner has been an operational firefighter since 1991. As the service’s road safety team leader he manages a team delivering messages to the public on all matters regarding road safety in Kent and Medway.

The pair will share their experience of working with young people from the project’s inception to its planned opening at around the time of Young Driver Focus 2016, and talk about ways they hope the project will evolve in the future.

Young Driver Focus 2016 is being held at the prestigious RAC Club in London’s Pall Mall, courtesy of the RAC Foundation, on Wednesday 20 April 2016. The event is organised by Road Safety GB in partnership with FirstCar and headline sponsors ingenie. It is supported by stakeholders including the DfT, Road Safety Scotland, RoadSafe, RoSPA, PACTS and IAM.

Now in its third year, the one-day conference examines current and future thinking with regard to the vital issue of reducing crashes and casualties caused by young, newly qualified drivers, and what is being done to improve the situation.

More than 70 people have already booked to attend but a handful of early bird places (£75 plus VAT) remain available for Road Safety GB and Academy members.

Click here to register to attend, or here for information about exhibiting alongside the conference. For more information contact Sally Bartrum (delegate registration), Nick Rawlings (agenda & speakers) or Richard Storrs (exhibition).