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Renfrewshire Council Plan 2008 - 2012 Council boosts driver safety for young people
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Renfrewshire Council has teamed up with local driving schools and a Johnstone freight centre to encourage driver safety among young people.
The council's road safety team has organised "taster" driving lessons for S6 pupils from Gryffe High.
A driving lesson from a professional driving instructor was the final stage of a six-lesson module which covered a range of road safety and driving guidance.
The topics covered included:
- road safety
- choosing a driving instructor
- learning to drive
- the driving test
- legal aspects of driving
- the consequences of a crash
Councillor Marie McGurk, chair of Renfrewshire Council’s environment and infrastructure policy board, said: "The number of inexperienced drivers involved in road crashes is a real cause for concern. This course on driver and road safety will benefit young people who will shortly be going on to take the full driving test and give them a good understanding of the importance of safety.
"The pupils also learn things which take forward their studies in their personal and social education curriculum. I would like to thank those organisations who have worked with us to improve road safety, including W H Malcolm for the use of their premises in Johnstone, and Peter Harvey, the national chairman of the Motor Schools Association, for this commitment to the pre-driver training scheme organised by Renfrewshire Council.
"All the young people I spoke to enjoyed the course and learned lessons which will hopefully prove valuable in the future."
Gryffe High pupil Stuart Robertson, 17, said: "Everyone who was on the course is more aware of the dangers facing them as drivers or pedestrians and now has a greater awareness of others on the road. We learned about hazard perception and observation and the consequences of a crash which had been caused by a drunk driver in the example shown. The practical driving session was also beneficial. We got to drive cars different from those we'd be learning to drive in and for those not yet started driving lessons it was a useful stepping stone to such lessons."
Press release: Wednesday 31 October 2007
