Drive Safe competiton winner 15-yearold Max Brindley of Silver Lane, Needingworth.
Teenagers should be given the opportunity to have a driving lesson before their 17th birthday, claims a 15-year-old Hunts Post competition winner who won the chance to drive around a private circuit.
As part of The Hunts Post’s Drive Safe, Save a Life Campaign, we teamed up with Alconbury Driving Centre to offer one youngster aged 15 or 16 the chance to take part in a free driving course specially designed for those too young to hold a driving licence.
The winner was 15-year-old Max Brindley of Silver Lane, Needingworth, who completed his course on Friday.
“I really enjoyed it. We drove along the old runway, went through the gears, sign posts, stopping, everything! I liked the runway the most: I got up to 55mph”.
“The Hunts Post competition was the first I had heard about the course but I think everyone should do it. Everyone wants to look cool and drive fast but this teaches you a lot.”
The aim of the one-to-one, three-hour programme, with a DSA-approved instructor, is to give teenagers a chance to learn the basics and vital road safety.
At the centre’s private driving circuit at Alconbury Airfield, teenagers encounter junctions, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and roundabouts.
Since January, The Hunts Post has been campaigning to end fatal collisions among young people on Cambridgeshire’s roads.
Two people aged between 17 and 25 are killed on Britain’s roads every day. In 2010, 12 young motorists in Cambridgeshire died following accidents.
The Alconbury driving centre was set up over seven years ago by the Cambridgeshire Police Shrievalty Trust with the aim of cutting down on road deaths by promoting greater partnership between the community, police and other partners in particular with their young driver training programme.
Based on article originally published in the Hunts Evening Post in 2011