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Southend - on Sea Borough Council - 02.07
For My Girlfriend

Many young couples will be out in the middle of February, travelling on the roads to Valentines events. The Road Safety Team at Southend Borough Council is taking this opportunity to highlight the dangers of driving too fast and specifically the message that more girls die as passengers than as drivers with a campaign titled 'For My Girlfriend'.

On Saturday 17 th February from 8:00pm the Road Safety Team will be joined by members of the fire brigade in Southend High Street (junction with Warrior Square) where they will be handing out red roses and information for young drivers. A Hummer, sponsored by Mayhem nightclub, and a Subaru Impressa, sponsored by Central Cars of Leigh, will be involved in the promotion that evening.

Members of the public are invited to come along for advice on how to minimise the dangers and how to keep their girlfriends safe. DfT casualty statistics for 2005 show that 276 girls aged 17-19 years were killed or seriously injured while driving, while 373 suffered the same fate as passengers. By contrast 869 male drivers of the same age were killed or seriously injured, compared to 602 passengers.

Collette Kemp, Road Safety Officer, said: "Our message is 'drive carefully when you're out as a couple'. We want to encourage young male drivers to slow down and female passengers to be aware of the dangers they face. In a survey on young drivers in the East of England, 79% said killing someone else would be worse than killing themselves - imagine what it would feel like to be responsible for your own girlfriend's death . So please slow down - for your girlfriend."

For further information, contact the Road Safety Team on 01702-215715 or visit www.fmg.org.uk .

Notes for Editors:

Interesting facts and figures about young drivers.

•  Over 1000 young lives are lost each year on UK roads.

· More women aged 17- 19 years die as passengers than as drivers.

· Young drivers are twice as likely to die in a road crash when carrying passengers of their own age.

· One young passenger makes an accident twice as likely, two or more makes it five times as likely.

· Novice drivers admit that their driving is adversely affected by the presence of their peers - and conversely improves when they are accompanied by their parents or other mature adults.

· One in three road accidents involves men under the age of 20.

· Young male drivers - despite passing the driving test more easily than females - are involved in a higher number of accidents.

· If involved in an accident, a male driver aged 17-20 years is nine times more likely to be at fault than a driver aged 31-40 years with the same length of driving experience.

· The first two years after passing the driving test are lethal. Novice drivers form just 7% of the driving population but have 12% of injury accidents

· Research shows that accident liability is reduced by nearly half after two years' driving experience

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