Welcome Safe Drive Stay Alive

London

Dont be remembered as a bunch of flowers by the side of a road

“Too many lives are being lost or ruined on our roads today, Safe Drive Stay Alive aims to show how inappropriate driving and inappropriate behaviours of road users can have a dramatic life changing effect, on many others, as well as themselves“

Introduction

The London Fire Brigade invited the Metropolitan Police, the London Ambulance service,Transport for London and the London Borough of Havering to form a partnership in September 2005 to create the “Safe Drive Stay Alive” project for London.

The partnership was created with the aim of duplicating and improving upon the Safe Drive Stay Alive work that has already taken place in Surrey and other parts of the country.

The project in Surrey has been running since 2004 and has attracted much attention and media focus from across the country. It is a very hard hitting way to get the road safety message across to the young people who are dying and causing death on UK roads everyday.

The proposal is to pilot Safe Drive Stay Alive in the London Borough of Havering and to see if the idea will then be feasible to extend to other London boroughs and perhaps ultimately to roll out to the whole of London.

Objectives

The objective of the initiative is to reduce the number of road deaths and injuries caused by road traffic collisions to young people, especially new, young and inexperienced drivers on the roads of London.

We hope to achieve this through inducing a change in their driving behaviour and attitudes to road safety, following their attendance at this hard hitting road show.

Idea

Safe Drive – Stay Alive is a stage show aimed at raising awareness of the risks and dangers associated with driving among a vulnerable group of young people. Many young drivers are carried away by the enjoyment of their new skills and their confidence may exceed their experience and judgement. Nationally 20% crash in their first year of driving. In 2005 there were 4713 injury collisions involving young car drivers (17 – 25 years) on London’s roads. 32 of these collisions were fatal. The 4713 collisions resulted in a total of 6334 casualties.

There is a clear need to educate London’s young drivers and passengers to change their attitudes and driving behaviour. This new stage show is designed to coordinate with existing programmes of education for new drivers provided by London Road Safety Officers and presentations offered by the Driving Standards Agency.

The show is based around a video reconstruction of a road traffic accident. It traces the events leading up to the accident and then follows the actions of the emergency services dealing with the incident. At appropriate moments the video is halted whilst serving members of the Police, Ambulance Service, Fire Service and an A&E consultant speak of their own experiences at the scene of the accident. Perhaps the most poignant messages come from the parent of a young person who lost their life in an accident and also from a person disabled by the actions of a young driver.

The format will be modern, original and hard hitting, and will challenge the students’ attitudes and perceptions. It is being led by London Fire Brigade in partnership with Transport for London, Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service and the Health Authority.

All young people about to embark on their driving training should see this event.
The Safe Drive - Stay Alive project contains a powerful and poignant message about the responsibility drivers have to themselves and other road users. It avoids the temptation to moralise but rather challenges participants to consider their own responses to the events and experiences which unfold before them. By exploring the consequences of events and using a combination of flashback, open-testimony and simulation, Safe Drive - Stay Alive allows participants to engage with the safe driving message in a variety of ways. This project, filmed in Havering / London and planned with the London’s young drivers in mind, will have a positive impact on the driving behaviour of both our learner drivers and those who might consider themselves as more experienced drivers.