Safety training should start early

SafeSpeed calls for schools input

By PH Staff / Monday, 24 October 2005 / Loading comments

Newly published research by the AA Motoring Trust highlights and re-affirms the well known dangers affecting some young male drivers.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "The report clearly shows that the problems are mostly attitudinal. The report lacks intelligent solutions to the problem. We have noted that young male drivers have a poor appreciation of their responsibilities when driving. It's commonly this lack of understanding of the nature and degree of responsibility that underlies the observable crashes with 'dangerous attitude' as a root cause.

"Safe Speed recommends road safety classes in schools for ages 14+. The main purpose of these classes would be to explain the nature and the scope of the responsibility of driving on the public highway. It's only after we (as a society) have taken the trouble to explain the responsibilities that we should blame young drivers for not understanding them."

Safe Speed said it believed that the following paragraph, from a New Zealand press release that was quoted by the AA, is key:

"We must spend more time and energy as parents and as a society teaching our young people to take driving seriously and making sure they are properly licensed before letting them behind the wheel. We must teach them to respect the dangers of speed and alcohol, and to accept responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their friends, family and other road users."