There will once again be a full house at Young Driver Focus 2018, with 196 delegates from across the UK set to attend the annual event in London tomorrow (25 April).
Now in its fifth year, Young Driver Focus examines current and future thinking with regard to the vital issue of reducing crashes and casualties among young drivers and their passengers.
Young Driver Focus is jointly organised by FirstCar, Road Safety GB and the RAC Foundation, in association with the young driver insurer ingenie, who has been the event’s headline sponsor for the past four years.
The 2018 edition of Young Driver Focus – which runs with the strapline ‘Connecting with Generation Z: understanding the current crop of young drivers’ – is once again being held at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall.
Among the highlights will be the keynote presentation from road safety minister Jesse Norman, who will also participate in a question and answer session with delegates.
Nicholas Worrell, a former US Marine now working for the National Transportation Safety Board in the USA, will address delegates about the challenges of being on the ‘frontline of road safety’.
Four academics will present two recent studies looking at young driver behaviour. Alan Tapp and Sean Johnson (University of the West of England) will look at whether social media can help improve the driving of young men from deprived areas; while Richard Rowe (Sheffield University) and Damien Poulter (University of Greenwich) will examine why learners are the safest drivers, but newly qualified drivers are the most dangerous.
Six months after the introduction of the new driving test, Lesley Young, chief driving examiner at the DVSA, and Lynne Barrie, chair of the approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council (ADINJC), will update delegates as to how the new-look test is bedding in.
Pre-driver training will be debated by motoring journalist Quentin Willson and Professor Frank McKenna – while after lunch road safety practitioners will outline current young driver interventions and campaigns they are deploying in their local areas.
Providing ‘Viewpoint Generation Z’, the conference will close with a series of short presentations by young people – and people who work with young people – giving tips and advice to help road safety professionals connect with this ‘hard to reach’ cohort.
Six other organisations will be exhibiting alongside the headline sponsor ingenie: FirstCar, Romex World, Solon Security, Vision Express, Westcotec and Young Driver.
The event will also once again include the 2018 FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards presentation ceremony, with seven public and private sector organisations in contention for the five awards to be presented on the day.
There will be live reporting from the conference hall by the Road Safety GB editorial team, from around 9.30am tomorrow when the conference commences.
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