Newslink April marketing special

News
ADIs urged to make heartbreaking BBC
documentary key part of their lesson plans
A devastating new film produced by the BBC
has been described as “a must watch for all
learner drivers, and those who have just
passed their test.”
Drive Fast Die Young tells the heartbreaking
story of Sammy Phillips, who was
killed in 2023 at the age of 19 after a car he
was travelling in left the road at high speed
and smashed into a tree.
The driver, his friend Lewis, was three
times over the drink-drive limit, and was
travelling at an “insane speed”, according to
an eye witness.
The film is narrated by Sammy’s older
brother Jamie, and details how he and his
family came to terms with Sammy’s death.
Jamie interviewed the two Thames Vally
Police officers tasked with attending the
crash scene, as well as the paramedic who
was the first health responder.
The officers admit that having to tell the
family about a bereavement was the
“toughest part of the job. You know that you
are about to ruin someone’s life, telling them
that their son or daughter is dead.”
The paramedic reflected that his first
thought, on realising the two occupants had
died, was “what a waste, and how stupid.”
Police investigators found that the car had
clipped the kerb while travelling at high speed
and had flipped in the air, before crashing into
trees by the side of the road.
It hit a tree eight feet up, roof first,
delivering sickening and unsurvivable head
injuries to the two young men.
The only consolation for the families was
that death would have been instantaneous;
“they will have felt nothing,” said the coroner.
Jamie is filmed visiting the scene where he
sees the scars on the tree where it was
struck by the car. “I stand here and know,
this is exactly where Sammy died. It’s
horrible,” Jamie says.
He also talked to Dr Elizabeth Box, research
director for the RAC Foundation, and Dr
Shaun Helam, chief scientist at the TRL Ltd,
who highlight the problems new drivers have
with being attracted to dangerous behaviour.
Dr Box points out that the male brain
develops differently from the female, and it is
hard-wired to seek “thrills and risk-taking”,
something that fades away in their middle
20s. “But at 17-18, young men have a
sensation-seeking craving, just at the point
when we give them driving licences.”
Dr Helam says “we have a societal
blindspot” over the consequences of
dangerous driving, and that fatal incidents
such as Sammy’s make graduated licences
something that must be introduced.
“Policymakers go on about them being
difficult to enforce, but that’s not a reason for
doing nothing.”
Jamie expresses his anger that England no
longer has a road safety strategy, and hasn’t
had one since the Conservative Party came
to power in 2010.
There is also a fascinating interview with a
young rapper called Ned Price. Ned describes
how he was deligted to pass his driving test
when 17 - but the day was ruined when he
crashed his car the very same day.
Did he learn anything from the lesson? “No,
I got straight into a borrowed car and within
two weeks had crashed that as well!”
Unsurprisingly the two crashes were
enough for him to receive a ban, and he lost
his licence. “That’s what hurt. I never thought
‘I was lucky to survive those crashes’”, he
tells Jamie. “I thought I was invincible. The
Screengrabs from the programme. Right,
floral tributes left at the scene of the fatal
crash, and above the car crash of the year
before, which amazingly he walked away
from unscathed. The car was being driven far
above the speed limit, but “I was too scared
to tell him to slow down,” Sammy later said
only thing that really made me stop and think
was when I realised I had to re-take my
theory and L-test again. That changed me.”
The last word goes to Jamie and his mum.
They recall that a year before his death,
Sammy was in another crash, which left the
car a write-off but which, amazingly, both he
and the driver walked away from unscathed.
When asked what the driver was doing
Sammy admitted he was driving very fast
and, heartbreakingly, had left him scared –
but “I wasn’t brave enough to tell him to slow
down.” It’s hard not to think, if only you had.
If you get your pupils to do one thing in the
next week or two, get them to watch the film
and then base your next lesson around it. It
could be the most important hour’s tuition
you ever give them.
Click here to
watch the film
12 NEWSLINK n APRIL 2024