A motoring journalist and an emeritus professor will go head-to-head on the subject of pre-driver training – and whether it makes for safer young drivers – during Young Driver Focus 2018.
Quentin Willson and professor Frank McKenna will each deliver presentations, followed by questions from delegates. The audience will be invited to participate in a ‘before and after’ poll, giving an indication as to whether opinions change as a result of the debate.
Now in its fifth year, Young Driver Focus examines current and future thinking with regard to the 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 is once again being held at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall on 25 April 2018.
Quentin Willson has been campaigning for better novice driver tuition for 20 years. He has presented evidence to Government Select Committees, lobbied the DfT and Government ministers and had questions tabled in the House of Commons.
Mr Wilson was patron of the ADI Joint National Council and has appeared on many radio and TV shows arguing for more support for hazard awareness and driving tuition in schools.
A patron of the Young Driver organisation which has trained 500,000 young people, he believes that teaching children from the age of 11 years about road awareness and ‘below the dashboard’ driving technique embeds road safety messages better than the conventional route of lessons at 17 years.
He joined the original Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson back in 1989, appearing weekly for 15 years. Quentin also created BBC2’s The Car’s The Star and channel Five’s The Classic Car Show. He writes a motoring column for Classic Cars Magazine and is the author of 10 best-selling motoring books.
Professor Frank McKenna obtained his BSc from the University of Glasgow and his PhD in Psychology from University College London, after which he spent six years at the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge.
Professor McKenna then worked as a senior psychologist for the Royal Air Force, before joining University of Reading where he was appointed as lecturer, then reader and professor of psychology.
One of his major research areas has been on anticipation in skilled behaviour such as sport and driving. He has been on the editorial boards of the ‘Applied Cognitive Psychology’ and ‘Accident Analysis and Prevention’ journals.
He has worked with the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) and has sat on the advisory boards for RoSPA and the AA Foundation for Road Safety, and served on the British Psychological Society working party on Fitness To Drive.
Young Driver Focus 2018
The cost of attending Young Driver Focus 2018 is £150 for Road Safety GB & Academy members; £175 for other attendees from the public sector, the third sector, academia and ADIs; and £195 for all other attendees (all plus VAT). The delegate fee includes lunch and all other refreshments.
Click here to register to attend, or for more information contact Sally Bartrum on 01379 650112.
There are a small number of spaces available for organisations to exhibit alongside the conference – click here for more information or contact Richard Storrs on 0845 4747035 or 07707 564422.
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