Young drivers - road safety advice

Drive survive - a course for young drivers, organised by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service

Young drivers (17-24 years old) are at a much higher risk of crashing than older drivers.

Drivers aged 17-19 are involved in 12% of fatal and serious crashes.

Below are some safety tips for young drivers:

Tips for young drivers

Always stick to the speed limits - going too fast gives you less time to stop or react. Excess speed is one of the main causes of teenage accidents.
Always wear your seat belt - and make sure all passengers buckle up, too. Don’t try to fit more people in the car than you have seat belts for them to use.
Adjust your car’s head rest to a height behind your head - not your neck - to minimize whiplash in case you’re in an accident.
Make sure your windshield is clean - at sunrise and sunset, light reflecting off your dirty windshield can momentarily blind you from seeing what’s going on.
Hold the steering wheel at either 3 and 9 o’clock on the wheel, or even lower at 4 and 8 o’clock - if you’re in an accident and the airbags go off, you’ll be safer with your hands not flying into your face from the impact of the airbags.
When traffic lights turn green, make sure junctions are clear before you move off.
Never pull out in front of anyone, or swerve into someone else’s lane.
Don’t make assumptions about what other drivers are going to do. The only thing you can assume about another driver with a turn signal on is that they have a turn signal on. He/she might not be turning at all, and just forgot to turn it off.

Watch out for

Watch out for aggressive drivers, and try to stay out of their way. They are the cause of a lot of accidents.
If you’re in the country, watch out for animals. If you see an animal on the road, slow down and flash your lights repeatedly. Dusk and dawn are particularly bad times for running into animals, so be on the lookout for them. More safety tips for driving on country roads.

One-day course for young people

Cheshire Fire and Rescue service offers a one-day course for young people, called Think Drive Survive.

Think Drive Survive is a one-day course for young road users, where they are exposed to the risks associated with being a driver, rider, passenger or pedestrian.

Find out more about the Drive Survive course and reserve a place on the course

Links to more road safety advice

What to do if you’re in an accident

Immediately call 999 if anyone is injured. If everyone’s okay, assess the scene.
Call the police before calling anyone else. Sometimes other drivers will try to stop you from doing this, but if someone is injured, it’s required that you report the accident.
If possible, do not move any cars until photos have been taken.
Call your parents if you need to.
Get information from the other driver(s), including their name, address, phone number, vehicle license plate, and their insurance provider.
Take photos with your phone or your passenger’s phone. Be sure to get pictures of the position of the cars, the damage, and anything else that’s relevant. This can later help to prove how the crash happened. Keeping a disposable camera in your glove box will help with this if you don’t have a camera phone.
Get the names and numbers of any witnesses to the accident.
Write down a note for yourself, or make a voice memo for yourself while the details of the accident are fresh in your mind. This can help with questioning later.
Call your insurance provider as soon as possible, they will guide you with your claim