The ability to drive is an aspiration of most young people. It is a skill that not only enhances our social lives but also impacts on our employability either as a direct route into jobs e.g. distribution and logistics or by opening up opportunities to a wider job market through accessibility. To be able to drive legally and safely makes you more employable. However young drivers typically represent between 18% and 30% of all killed drivers, although people in the same age group only represent between 9% and 13% of the total populations in their countries. Traffic crashes are the single greatest killer of 15-24 year-olds in OECD countries and within European countries, among 15-24 year olds, the majority of road fatalities are car occupants (59%) or motorcyclists (19%. Young drivers pose a greater risk than other drivers to themselves, their passengers and other road users, socially and economically excluded young people being highly represented in accident statistics. Research has indicated that inexperienced drivers, particularly young male drivers, tend to fall into the category of high risk threshold drivers. These drivers tend to have a particular set of attitudes that are associated with their lifestyles and driving culture. Risk taking is perceived as a normal part of driving as young people tend to have higher sensation seeking tendencies. This all has a huge economic and social cost on societies Improving traffic safety and reducing crashes and resulting deaths and injuries is a fundamental objective of the E-DRIVERS project as it aims to address the high levels of young driver risk by taking into account some of the highly complex root causes of the problem which include inexperience, age, gender , physiological and emotional development, personality, social norms and individuals’ socio-economic circumstances. The E-DRIVERS project will address risky behaviours of young drivers and pre-drivers through needs analysis, peer to peer learning and training programmes. E-DRIVERS will develop a learner education and training programme using e-learning and new technologies (e-platform and i- phone application) and providing training for interventionists such as teachers, trainers, youth workers, probation officers- people who are not road safety experts but have direct access to the target group. 3 international training events will pilot and test the train the trainers programme , preparing the interventionists to deliver the learner training programme. E-Drivers will produce a trainer handbook, as repository of learning resources and a Handbook of Good Practices for policy makers and those responsible for road safety, community safety, police and justice systems at local and regional level. It is expected that the E-DRIVERS project will impact at 3 levels: 1. on behaviour and attitude of young drivers and pre-drivers 2. on the actions of interventionists who are working with young people, either those at risk of demonstrating risky behaviour, or those convicted of offending behaviour. 3. on organisations at local and regional level which are responsible for road safety Long term benefits will be that organisations which are responsible for road safety, health and welfare and law and justice will have an additional countermeasure to risky behaviour in their portfolio. E-DRIVERS is prevention(pre-driver), intervention (learner driver) and curative (Convicted offender driver)measure, expanding the service offer of local and regional authorities to the local community at the same time as saving money on dealing with road accidents (police, ambulance, fire services etc).
The ability to drive is an aspiration of most young people. It is a skill that not only enhances our social lives but also impacts on our employability either as a direct route into jobs e.g. distribution and logistics or by opening up opportunities to a wider job market through accessibility. To be able to drive legally and safely makes you more employable. However young drivers typically represent between 18% and 30% of all killed drivers, although people in the same age group only represent between 9% and 13% of the total populations in their countries. Traffic crashes are the single greatest killer of 15-24 year-olds in OECD countries and within European countries, among 15-24 year olds, the majority of road fatalities are car occupants (59%) or motorcyclists (19%. Young drivers pose a greater risk than other drivers to themselves, their passengers and other road users, socially and economically excluded young people being highly represented in accident statistics. Research has indicated that inexperienced drivers, particularly young male drivers, tend to fall into the category of high risk threshold drivers. These drivers tend to have a particular set of attitudes that are associated with their lifestyles and driving culture. Risk taking is perceived as a normal part of driving as young people tend to have higher sensation seeking tendencies. This all has a huge economic and social cost on societies Improving traffic safety and reducing crashes and resulting deaths and injuries was a fundamental objective of the E-DRIVERS project as it aimed to address the high levels of young driver risk by taking into account some of the highly complex root causes of the problem which include inexperience, age, gender , physiological and emotional development, personality, social norms and individuals’ socio-economic circumstances. The E-DRIVERS project operated for just 10 months but in its first year the project began by identifying risky behaviours of young drivers and pre-drivers through desk research and primary research resulting in a literature review and needs analysis report,This brought together information on existing practice in 5 countries -Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Romania and Turkey summarised in one report. Additionally each partner produced a 2 page summary of their in-country research on existing practice and needs of the target group. E-DRIVERS also developed a draft learner training programme to be used by young drivers and pre-drivers as well as a draft bank of teaching and learning resources to be used by interventionists such as teachers, youth workers, probation officers.These are available in English The results of E-DRIVERS will impact on organisations at local and regional level which are responsible for road safety as it raises awareness of existing practice in other countries. Long term benefits will be that organisations which are responsible for road safety, health and welfare and law and justice will have an additional countermeasure to risky behaviour in their portfolio..