Don't become an accident statistic (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Don't become an accident statistic

Picture Ref: 78116-03PUPILS were given a hard reality check when they were shown how easy it is to become a road death statistic.

Yesterday was the turn of Commonweal School to view gruesome images of car crash victims at Westlea fire station.

Organiser sub officer Perry Payne revealed it was all part of a push to reduce deaths among new drivers.

Nearly every secondary school in Swindon has now attended the hard-hitting lecture, called Road Traffic Collisions Learning From Experience, over the past year.

And the fire chief says feedback has been positive.

"Many of those young people will be learning to drive in only a couple of months," he said.

"It's a tragedy to see young lives being lost. This project is about helping them make informed choices.

"Road traffic collisions or RTCs as we call them are just accepted these days. But many of them are preventable.

"We all face massive pressure every day and we make excuses to speed.

"What I am trying to do is deliver a reason not to," he added.

"Attitudes have got to change. Too many lives are being lost.

Overhead projectionscreens flashed up pictures of open kneecap fractures and deep flesh wounds.

Mr Payne told them: "Your organs twist and tear that's how you die from internal injuries.

"It can take just seven-tenths of a seconds to die following a collision."

Wiltshire Fire Brigade hopes to educate youngsters before they take to the road.

The project, which has now come to an end, took three years to plan and more than 1,300 pupils have been involved.

Mr Payne, who served with the brigade's Emergency Support Unit, which deals with road accidents added: "We are sent to 10 times as many RTCs as fires that's how bad the situation is."

The fire chief says he has been so encouraged by the response that he plans to hold the lectures next year.

"It was so heartening to see such a positive reaction from the youngsters," he said. "The lectures last two hours and it's hard to sit through something like that.

"Some of the images were extremely graphic but I think it slammed the message home."

Money for the project has come from a variety of sources, including the Local Education Authority and Swindon Primary Care Trust.

Terrible toll on the roads

There are 3,600 fatalities on Britain's roads every year.

Motorists are involved in 1,600 of them.

There are 300,000 injuries each year, 45,000 involve serious injury.

Ten people are killed on the roads on an average day and 120 people are seriously injured.

Kevin Shoesmith