Drive for safer roads in the west

Roadwise, a series of safe driving courses, will run from September for young people aged 17-24 years throughout the western area.

A Public Health Safety (PHA) initiative, Roadwise comprises a one-day intensive advanced driving course and will take place in Fermanagh, Omagh, Strabane, Londonderry and Limavady District Council areas.

Brendan Bonner, Health Improvement Lead, at the PHA said: “The west of the province has some of the worst levels of road traffic collisions.

“Research shows that young drivers are more likely to seek thrills from driving at high speed and young males in particular are at greatest risk.

“Statistically 17-24 year-old males are most likely to be involved and 17-20 year-old male drivers are almost ten times more likely to be killed or seriously injured while driving than 40-59 year old males.

“Reasons for this include over confidence, lack of experience and hazard perception and peer pressure. The Roadwise programme aims to improve the attitudes of young drivers about hazard perception and encourages them to consider their responsibility for other road users and their own passengers.”

Funding from the PHA and input from the Emergency Services have enabled the course, which normally costs 100, to be made available to young people living in the Western area for the much reduced cost of 25.

Roadwise is delivered in close association with the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Police Service of Northern Ireland who bring their first hand experience of dealing with the impact of road traffic collisions.

Mr Bonner continued: “The evaluation of previous Roadwise courses has demonstrated that the programme does change young peoples attitudes to speeding, careless driving and provides them with a greater appreciation of the risks of driving and the work of emergency services.

“Over 200 young people have previously undertaken the programme in the west, none of whom have reported picking up penalty points for speeding. This provides us with clear evidence of the positive impact of the Roadwise initiative.”

The Health Improvement Team in the west is involved in a number of other road safety initiatives.

The Cross Border Young Drivers Challenge, a joint initiative with the Limavady Road Safety Committee and the Emergency Services, is running for the third consecutive year.

In addition the team are supporting a Safedriving event, in collaboration with the PSNI, on tomorrow August 5, 2010 at Limavady Gear Company (formerly Seagate, Limavady).

Other events planned for later this year include under-17 driving experience days, skid car experience days and track skills days.

For further information on the Roadwise programme or any of the other road safety initiatives, please contact Ailish O’Neill in the Public Health Agency Office on 028 7186 0086 or via email at [email protected].