The hard-hitting Safe Drive Stay Alive road safety initiative returned to the north-east for the third consecutive year in November.

The award-winning scheme presents pupils approaching driving age with a thought-provoking mixture of video footage and live presentations charting the devastating effects of a fatal car crash.

Around 5,000 pupils from Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen and Moray saw the show over eight performances staged at Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom from November 6-9.

An evening session on Wednesday, November 7, gave parents and young people who have already left school the chance to see the show.

Organised by the Aberdeenshire Community Safety Partnership, the unique event aims to leave young people in no doubt as to their vulnerability as they start to drive and be driven by their friends.

The initiative also looks to bring home the effects a collision can have on them as individuals and on other people and, in particular, their families.

In December 2006, the scheme won the Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award in 2006 in the Young Drivers Road Safety Category.

Safe Drive Stay Alive is made possible with a great deal of support from the organisations which make up the community safety partnerships, including: local councils, community safety partnerships, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, Grampian Police, NHS Grampian, and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Forming part of the shows are live presentations from people who have directly experienced the effects of collisions, including first hand accounts from representatives of the emergency services, plus emotive accounts of life after a crash by bereaved parents and the victim of a road collision.

Aberdeenshire Community Safety Partnership chairman Willie Munro said:

"Safe Drive Stay Alive has very quickly established itself as an event not to be missed by fifth year pupils across the north-east, and we are proud that every secondary school in the area has the chance to participate.

"Feedback from schools and pupils has been overwhelmingly positive and we feel the event is having a real impact on attitudes towards driving.

"However, it remains a fact that young people up to the age of 25 are particularly vulnerable on the north-east's roads, both as drivers and as passengers in cars. This initiative plays an important role in raising awareness among young people about the risks."

In 2006, 62 people died on Grampian's roads. Of those, 25 were under the age of 25 - around 40% of the total figure. A further 217 people were seriously injured.

Grampian Police Chief Superintendent Harry Thorburn said:

"The third anniversary of this event marks an important milestone in the history of road deaths in north-east Scotland. It is a history which makes for uncomfortable and even distressing reading, accompanied by shocking images all too often portrayed in the local press and television.

"This event arose from the determination of a growing number of key people in local authorities and the emergency services to stem the awful tide of young people being killed and suffering appalling injuries on our roads.

"Three years on, we are now beginning to see a reduction in road casualties and there is no question that Safe Drive Stay Alive has played a part in that reduction.

"It is, in my view, an excellent example of effective partnership working within communities for communities and while road casualty reduction will remain a strategic priority for Grampian Police, it is an aim we will never achieve without the support of our partners and the public."

Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, Annie Hill, said:

"The Safe Drive Stay Alive initiative is just one of the projects Grampian Fire and Rescue Service is involved in with our partners in the Road Traffic Hub to try and prevent the appalling loss of life on north-east roads - 30 fatalities this year so far with the majority being young people under the age of 25.

"Safe Drive Stay Alive is a hard hitting event and an opportunity for us to reach out to large numbers of young people who may have just started to drive or who are about to learn.

"It is our way of letting young people know the effect that bad driving has, not just on them, but on others around them; friends, families, and the emergency service staff who have to deal with each tragic incident."

Students who attended last year's presentation were clearly moved by it. Comments from a few of the students are shown on the left.

More information on Safe Drive Stay Alive can be found at www.safedrivestayalive.org

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