Groundbreaking road safety film to get premiere

9:17am Thursday 29th November 2007

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THE Press' Live Now, Drive Later film is to get a formal premiere at York's City Screen cinema.

The film, which aims to deter youngsters from joy-riding, will be shown at the city centre cinema on the morning of Monday, December 10, to an invited audience.

Guests are set to include everyone involved in the making of the film, and also police, fire and ambulance chiefs, head teachers and local authority representatives.

The Live Now, Drive Later campaign was launched after an inquest was held into a triple fatal accident in Stockton Lane, York, last year, in which two 15-year-old boys and a Press van driver were killed.

One of the teenagers, Joel Corner, was driving his father's Audi car, which he had taken without permission.

Tony Clarke, City Screen manager, said it was keen to support the community by showing the film, made to prevent future tragedies.

"I think it important for City Screen to support campaigns like The Press' Live Now, Drive Later, following the tragic deaths of three York people," he said.

"We were very keen to host the premiere screening of the new film and participate in the campaign.

"Films can be a valuable means of communicating information to people. City Screen can help by being involved with campaigns like The Press' Live Now, Drive Later and screening films that raise awareness of the dangers of driving and taking cars without permission.

"We hope our support will help prevent future deaths on the roads."

The 13-minute film features interviews with people directly affected by consequences of joy-riding, including the parents of Joel and the son of the Press van driver, Peter Alexander.

But it also depicts a fictional dramatisation of an incident in which a teenager is tempted into joy-riding, and then suffers horrific injuries after crashing the car.

The film is primarily intended to be shown to students at schools across York and North Yorkshire as part of road safety roadshows organised by the emergency services.

As The Press reported yesterday, it was shown publicly for the first time on Monday at Archbishop Holgate's School - which was attended by Joel and his friend, Daniel Wright, who also died in the crash.

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