Newslink April marketing special

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
For all the latest news, see www.msagb.com DVSA low carbon plans focus on flexible delivery The DVSA has set out its commitment to a sustainable and Net Zero strategy in a new policy paper. It highlights previous successes on the low carbon agenda, including converting 25% of its fleet to ultra low emission vehicles, reducing carbon travel emissions by 27% and installing solar panels at three DVSA sites. But it aims to go further. As the paper points out, “Road use is changing to a more automated and digitised way of travelling. We want to be at the forefront of this transition.” As a result, moving towards 2030, it will Residents’ voice their anger over ADIs’ actions near DTC Complaints have been raised by local residents regarding ADIs’ cars obstructing driveways and junctions unnecessarily in the area around the Birmingham Kingstanding driving test centre. The DVSA is asking ADIs to remember they must be considerate to local neighbours when attending/leaving that driving test centre (DTC), and to be particularly careful on on Birdbrook Road and Rodlington Avenue. Using Birmingham Kingstanding DTC ADIs are reminded that they should only use the car park if they are attending a driving test, and only come into the test centre 10 minutes prior to your candidates’ test. If you are hoping to familiarise yourself with the area, you can view the car park and its layout by using an online street view. “By being considerate to neighbours we reduce the chance of disruption to testing in the future”, the DVSA said. Record high licence holders - but fewer young people The number of driving licence holders has hit a record milestone with more than 42 million people now holding a full licence. 42,120,966 people now have a full UK driving licence, compared to 41,570,822 this time last year. But the number of younger licence holders is down: there are 3.05 million licensed drivers aged 16 to 25 in the UK, 8% fewer than held a licence in March 2020, when 3.32 million 16 to 25-year-olds had a full driving licence. invest further in decarbonising its car and van fleet by replacing existing hybrid and diesel vehicles with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to achieve near to zero tailpipe emissions by the end of 2027. In addition it will reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and direct emissions from a 2017 to 2018 baseline – this is a total scope reduction of 33%, including fleet emissions reduced by 35% Of interest to ADIs will be an aim to “be proactive in identifying new ways to deliver our services. Projects are underway to further explore the alternatives to our current fixed driving test centre estate: the flexible test delivery service (FTDS) and automated route generation initiatives. “These, supported by the new driver services platform project, will help us to reduce our future reliance on the use of fixed driving test centres, while improving our service offering to our customers.” Overall its goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to DVSA activity from electricity by 79% and fossil fuels by 6% from a 2017 to 2018 baseline. NEWSLINK n APRIL 2024 13
Page 1 and 2: Newslink The Voice of MSA GB Issue
Page 3 and 4: For all the latest news, see www.ms
Page 5: For all the latest news, see www.ms
Page 8 and 9: Contents CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS Youn
Page 10 and 11: News Young bikers targeted as forum
Page 14 and 15: News Big fall in pass rates when no
Page 16 and 17: News Learner harrassment getting wo
Page 18 and 19: Conference 2024 Telford: Full repor
Page 30 and 31: Members’ section NASP: The Nation
Page 32 and 33: Members’ section Get 10p off ever
Page 34 and 35: Towards your CPD Talking of driving
Page 36 and 37: Towards your CPD Evaluating road sa
Page 38 and 39: Area News The NHS desperately needs
Page 40 and 41: Area News An ADI on holiday... is s
Page 42 and 43: Life as an ADI A cautionary tale of
Page 44 and 45: Members’ discounts Members’ dis

Newslink April marketing special

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?