Teenagers across South Lakeland and Furness look set to be offered the chance to take part in special driving courses because of the number of accidents on the A590.

Moves are afoot to create accredited young driver training schemes for those aged between 16 and 18 to encourage a "responsible attitude to driving" in the Furness, Cartmel and Milnthorpe areas.

The 30-hour sessions will be targeted at those starting to learn to drive or who are about to take their test at Dallam School and Ulverston Victoria High School.

The 17 to 21-year-old age group accounts for around seven per cent of the driving population and comprises 13 per cent of those involved in accidents, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa).

Members of the County Council's Local Committee for South Lakeland are expected to agree to support the scheme and sanction their initial £2,000 contribution at a meeting in Kendal tomorrow (Thursday).

Stuart Pate, area support manager for CCC, said the course would not involve any driving on the A590 but some off-road driving could be expected, along with tuition, literature and videos.

Mr Pate said: "We are aiming it at those in sixth form or thereabouts or those most likely to be looking to pass their driving test.

"Those that pass their tests first are more likely to have accidents because some think they are better than they are. The ones that take their tests three or four times have a lot more road experience."

The aim of the free 30-hour session course will be to "inform, influence and educate" the next generation of drivers and help them make "informed decisions about driving safely."

The pilot 12-month project involves the county council, police, Driving Standards Agency, Capita Health and Safety, local driving instructors, a local garage and a full-time worker to implement the scheme.

In the report for members Mr Pate states: "In recent months a number of tragic accidents have occurred on the A590. It is clear that a number of these accidents principally involved young people driving in the evening."

Rospa says an 18-year-old driver is three times more likely to be involved in an accident than a 48-year-old while one in five new drivers are involved in an accident in their first year of driving.

A pole-mounted safety camera was recently put up at the site on the A590 between Bouth Road and Greenood, where Gareth Lewis, 18, and Victoria Clarke, 15, from Grange-over-Sands, and Anthony Ramsden, 18, of Ulverston, were involved in a fatal road traffic accident on March 16.

l The course comes as a delegation of A590 bypass supporters from the Furness area prepares to meet Transport Secretary John Spellar as part of plans to convince the

Government to approve the £11m scheme.

May 7, 2003 09:00