'Road Runner 2008 - Four Days of Activities for Students to Drive Home the Importance of Safe Motoring

Braintree College and Essex County Council Road Safety Team, in partnership with local and national agencies, presented ‘RoadRunner 2008’ at the College’s Church Lane campus from Tuesday 18 to Friday 21 November 2008.

RoadRunner is a free scheme, open to Year 12 students and above, designed to improve drivers of the future. Over the four days 240 prospective new drivers from Braintree District took part in a programme of driving related activities to increase awareness of motoring responsibility and received the most up-to-date information on all issues relating to motoring. There were presentations by Essex Police, Essex County Council Trading Standards Agency, Driving Standards Agency and EYPDAS (Drugs Agency). Every student also took a 15 to 20 minute driving lesson with BDA driving school.

Tracey Clark, Pastoral Tutor for Construction at Braintree College coordinated the event. She said: "Many young people are strongly attracted to driving, but they are also the age group most at risk from collisions and from car theft and damage. RoadRunner gives young people the opportunity to learn about responsible, safe and legal driving; it also enables them to learn how to protect themselves and their vehicle from collisions and crime."

Tracey continued: "A recent study showed that young drivers are 4 times more likely to be involved in an accident than 26-59 year olds and over 6 ½ times more likely than elderly drivers, and whilst young drivers of 17-21years account for only 4.4% of licence holders in Great Britain, they represent 13% of all car drivers involved in Road Accidents. RoadRunner is an ideal opportunity for drivers and pre-drivers to gain a valuable insight into the demands of the modern road. The action-packed programme will make young people aware of the costs and responsibilities associated with driving and guide them into making safer choices when they take to the road."

John Hughes from BDA said: "We hope the students enjoyed and learnt from their driving lessons. The route we designed was hard and required a lot of work with the clutch, brake and accelerator. Everyone did really well and made the most of an opportunity to learn about vehicle controls and manoeuvres before going on the road."