Autoline’s Launches ‘Respect the Road’ Initiative Driving Safety on County Down Roads.
The Autoline Insurance ‘Respect the Road’ initiative has been educating students at colleges across Northern Ireland in recent weeks including Shimna College students in Newcastle on Friday 5th October. Over 60 students were introduced to the powerful programme, including a real-life car simulator, which highlights the devasting consequences of dangerous or careless driving.
In the simulator, students experienced the recreation of a harrowing road accident, demonstrating the intense impact of irresponsible driving. To fully relay the reality of damage that road accidents can bring, in both a realistic yet empathetic way, the workshop was also facilitated by Tracey Doherty, a former Family Liaison Officer within the PSNI. For over 25 years, Tracey attended scenes of accidents, carried out body identifications and visited family homes to communicate the tragic news of fatalities to parents.
Karen Caulfield, Vice Principal of Shimna College, said: “We were very impressed by both the car crash simulator and the thought-provoking presentation. It is sadly the case that many young, inexperienced drivers do not appreciate the risk to life when distracted by passengers and mobile devices.
Our hope is that our students will reflect on what they heard and experienced today and make good decisions in the future, both as drivers and as passengers.”
The Autoline ‘Respect the Road’ programme has visited a significant number of schools and universities in NI over the past five years, with many more educational visits planned over the coming months.
Between January and June 2018 alone, 2,829 collisions have been recorded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) across NI, resulting in a total of 4,299 casualties and 39 fatalities. Young people aged 16-24 currently make up 13% of the fatalities on NI roads. While this number has decreased slightly from 2017, Autoline is determined to communicate the importance of road safety far and wide, with the aim of seeing this number reduced further.
Suzanne Curtis, Marketing Manager, Autoline Insurance Group said: “At Autoline, we are passionate about ensuring the safety of young people and others on our roads. We valued the opportunity to share both the simulator experience and powerful presentation with students at Shimna College. Our ‘Respect the Road’ programme paints a picture of the stark, and unfortunately distressing reality of what dangerous driving can bring. At Autoline, we consider it important to share messages of safety with students throughout their high school and student years to instill safer and more responsible driving on our roads.”
The Autoline team were on hand to answer any questions that participants had during the series of events. They explained how ChilliDrive, Autoline’s young driver insurance product offers an upfront savings to young drivers on their car insurance. ChilliDrive is a reduced premium car insurance policy that uses telematics technology to measure and score drivers’ journeys and contribute to improving their driving standards.
For further information about how your school can participate in the ‘Respect The Road’ programme please contact Evanna Kieran at Autoline Insurance Group on 028 3025 9011 or visit:
