Sixth form students are being encouraged to ‘think twice’ about the dangers they face on the roads after taking part in a pilot that aims to reduce serious collisions involving young drivers.
In Lancashire, one in five casualties of all road traffic collisions are younger drivers aged 17-24, with males making up 65% of all of those killed or seriously injured.
In response to this, Lancashire County Council’s road safety team commissioned a new theatre production, Braking Point, which features common scenarios that contribute to collisions, showing the behaviour of drivers and passengers that puts people at risk.
In the run up to Road Safety Week (17-23 November), Braking Point was performed at 10 sixth forms and colleges across Lancashire. Students and pupils also took part in a workshop to show who is most at risk of being in a crash, looking at the factors that increase the chance of being in a collision.
Joe Gaywood, who performs in Braking Point, said: “Braking Point is about a group of college students starting to learn to drive and wanting to be in each other’s company, whilst driving together.
“Not only is it about driver safety, it is also about passenger safety. We are targeting sixth form and college students, so we are helping to change their attitudes before they are learning to drive, not only as drivers but also as passengers.
“Hopefully together, we can get the statistics and collisions for young drivers right down, as they are really high at the moment.”
Year 13 pupils at Lancaster Royal Grammar School shared their feedback after the performance.
Seventeen year old Alex Griffiths said: “Watching Braking Point helped me to realise that a driving accident can happen to anyone, at any moment. It takes only a split second for something to go wrong.
“I realised that being a passenger can be just as important as being a driver and you don’t hear about that aspect.”
Angelow Jumon, 18, said the show made him ‘think twice’, and was shocked to find out that being in a car with a passenger older than 35 reduced the risk of a collision by 62%.
He said: “Watching the performance made it clear that a passenger can have a huge influence on the driver. Hearing ‘Jason’ shout and how that led to the crash, really struck me.”
The conclusion of the Braking Point tour comes as the council’s cabinet approved the Lancashire Road Safety Strategy 2025-2027. The strategy aims to coordinate the council’s road risk reduction work, which targets significant at-risk groups of road users in Lancashire, over the next two years.
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