Courses for young drivers to sharpen skills (From Echo)

Courses for young drivers to sharpen skills

2:53pm Friday 8th May 2009 in Cars

ROSPA has launched a new course offering young drivers the chance to improve their driving skills.

The evaluation course, designed for 17 to 24 year-olds, aims to reduce the number of young drivers killed and injured on UK roads.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, car crashes remain the largest single cause of death and injury to young adults with one in five young drivers crashing within a year of passing their test.

More than 300 newly-qualified drivers and their passengers are killed in car crashes each year.

The new course offers objective appraisals of young driver’s abilities and advice on how they can improve their technique, attitude or ability.

Rick Wood, head of training at RoSPA’s driver and fleet solutions team, said: “Our assessment is a great start in improving the current state of affairs for young drivers. The blunt fact is that many of them crash soon after passing their test.

“I’m confident the assessment will help young motorists to identify weak areas in their driving.

“We will continue to develop services for this important and vulnerable group of road users.”

Course trainers will all be holders of the Police Advanced Drivers’ Qualification and will provide candidates with both a written and verbal report on their performance.

“RoSPA believes the best time to take the course is between six and nine months after passing the driving test, when complacency can creep in and bad driving habits begin to be formed.

Young drivers can go to www.road ar.org/drivers/YDA.htm for more information.