Sensible Driving -Always Arriving
Latest news
Our campaign team
were contacted by Good Egg Safety; the organisation behind the award
winning 'Good Egg Guide series.
They have produced a new guide which is FREE to all parents of new
drivers across the UK (subject to availability) thanks to the
generosity of the Arnold Clark Group and the Co-operative Insurance
We have assisted by providing access to our latest video and they
have included information on the tragic story of Diane Matheson's
son Callum.
It is hoped that we can work together to drive down casualties among
young drivers and their passengers
click on the image above to view it or on the link below
Early one morning in March 2010, two local teenagers Callum Matheson and Ahlee Jackson, both 17, were killed in a fatal road collision on Island bank Road, Inverness.
Our office was inundated with requests from Constituents who asked if there was anything we could do to halt the carnage amongst our younger generation in particular with regards to their involvement in serious and fatal road collisions.
In the weeks that followed, we sat down with and bounced ideas of each other.
The outcome was that we felt there was two areas we could really explore and progress and these areas were:
· Education and the introduction of a Graduated Licence Scheme (GLS)
In the following weeks and months we undertook the following courses of action
· Prepared leaflets and posters, Stagecoach Bus displayed them in 180 of their buses. McDonald’s handed out 500 to their customers and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend the ICT versus Hearts home game and handed out nearly 5000 leaflets.
· Allied to the above we managed to secure a deal with Macrae & Dick for sponsorship by way of them providing us with a Mazda MPS 2.0 sports car which we utilised at events. Other local companies devoted either goods or their time free and allowed us to have a stock of posters, pull ups, pens with our logo thereon etc etc
· For the young men in the audience, we did a fair bit of work advertising our campaign with ‘Miss Inverness’ Ceilidh Watson.
· We joined forces with local nighclubs and latterly we received sponsorship from a local Taxi firm who placed out advertising on the rear of 3000 of their business cards.
· Diane and Graham Matheson, the parents of Callum have been very brave and strong and have joined us on this journey. They also visit local schools and talk about their tragic experience.
· David Stewart MSP placed motions before the Scottish Parliament and lodged Parliamentary Questions. We alsowrote to Phillip Hammond the UK Transport Secretary as well as the then Scottish Minister for Transport Stewart Stevenson and the current Minister Keith Brown on this issue.
· More importantly we have launched our own web page – www.sensibledriving.org.uk and have an on-line petition on this site which I would urge those of you in favour of our work to sign.
· There is so much more planned in this area, including the filming of a documentary style productions charting the effects of this whole issue as it relates to the grieving families involved, the learner driver and politicians like myself who are trying to make a difference.
So what is a Graduated Licence Scheme?
Well it is best summed up by advising you that it is a scheme where restrictions are placed on the new driver once they pass the first part of their test.
Before they can enjoy the freedom currently experienced by newly qualified drivers, we want to restrict the numbers of young people a new driver can carry in their vehicle, restrict the periods of the day they can drive (with certain excemptions i.e. travel to and from work), make the displaying of a ‘P’ plate mandatory for a period after successful completion of part one of the test.
We do not want new drivers to be allowed to consume alcohol whilst driving.
However rather than see these elements as restrictions, what we propose is that we and those we work with in this field, be allowed to give young drivers the skills which will make you better drivers first before they have total freedom.
We have worked closely with Dr Sarah Jones from Cardiff University.
As a result of 10 years of study she found that up to 22 lives could be saved per year and up to £80million to the Scottish economy if a graduated licence scheme were to be introduced.
In the past six months we undertook filming of our new 12 minute film on this subject.
We followed the family of Callum Matheson and show, through this film, the devastation caused to this family as a result of the death of Callum.
We also speak with new and learner drivers and get their opinions on this topic.
This film was showcased at Vue Cinema Inverness, in front of an invited audience.
We are now in the process of giving our DVD film to every secondary school in the Highlands & Islands and during the week commencing 6 February we take our sponsored sports car and visit secondary schools in the Highlands giving talks and lectures on this topic.
What we are now looking for, is for a famous group or individual, who are keen to support our work and give an endorsement of our campaign.
Allied to this request we would be delighted to obtain a photograph of this group, or individual holding our DVD.
The reason being that we hope that such an endorsement will allow young people to see that we have such high profile people supporting us and therefore, just maybe they may come on board.