The Merseyside Road Safety Partnership was ‘highly commended’ at the CIHT North Western Branch Awards Dinner for its ‘Engage’ driver training programme.
The 2013 Awards Dinner was held at the Park Royal in Warrington on 19 April. Awards were presented to products, projects or initiatives of particular merit in four categories: Transportation Project of the Year; Sustainability Project of the Year; Safety Project of the Year; and Best Practice Award.
Engage was first shortlisted and ultimately ‘highly commended’ in the Safety Project of the Year category. The winner of the category was EnterpriseMouchel for its Area 13 Road Worker Safety initiative.
Engage was initially developed by South Yorkshire Road Safety Team, under the name ‘Learn Safe Drive Safe’, and has been running in Merseyside for more than a year.
It is a training programme for approved driving instructors, which enables them to prepare novice drivers for the important period after their driving test when they are vulnerable as new drivers.
The programme has been funded through the Merseyside Road Safety Partnership and is a collaboration between Merseyside Police, Merseyside local authority road safety teams and driving instructors.
The driving instructors received specialist training from Ian Edwards, of eDriving Solutions, to help them deliver learner-centre coaching to better equip novice drivers with the skills needed to identify and deal with hazards on the roads.
Topics covered in the scheme include distraction, influence of others, fatigue, speed, drink and drugs, medication and seatbelts.
In addition to in-car discussions between the instructor and student, learners complete exercises between lessons and attend an evening workshop with their parents to reinforce their learning and highlight the potential dangers faced by new drivers. The scheme also places an expectation on parents and guardians to become involved in the process.
Gill Roberts, senior RSO for St Helens Council, said: “The early evaluation results have been very positive and the e-learning package is now being rolled out to instructors and learner drivers.”
For more information contact Gill Roberts on 07917086661.
Well done to all involved. Great project and certainly something that we are looking at starting in Warrington.
Melanie McHale Warrington
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