South Ayrshire secondary schools attend Reckless Driving Wrecks Lives event

This is an archived article from 7 March 2023. 

Secondary schools from across South Ayrshire were invited to attend an event held at the Odeon Cinema in Ayr as part of the Reckless Driving Wrecks Lives (RDWL) initiative.

South Ayrshire Council's Thriving Communities team, as part of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership, ran the event with contributions from the NHS Ayrshire and Arran, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue, and Police Scotland. A video was shown alongside presentations from our partners to detail the impact of a crash on the parties involved, friends and family, and first responders.

The aim of the presentation was to get young people thinking their behaviour when driving - such as not wearing a seatbelt, speeding, alcohol misuse, peer-pressure from passengers, and mobile phone use while driving - and consequences of these actions. These could be as severe as facing a prison sentence or life with a permanent injury.

The event was targeted at teens who have started driving or may be thinking about driving soon. Approximately 900 S5 and S6 pupils, college pupils and young apprentices attended.

Councillor Stephen Ferry, Education portfolio holder for South Ayrshire Council said: "This is a fantastic event which has been going since 2005, and I'm glad to see it return to Ayr once more. I'm sure the presentation really got the young people thinking, and we'll see a generation of careful drivers coming up from our schools!"