Campaign film gets cinema premiere

9:58am Monday 10th December 2007

Comments (5)   Have your say »

YORK'S City Screen cinema was today screening the premiere of The Press' Live Now, Drive Later film.

The film, which aims to deter youngsters from joyriding, was being shown to an invited audience including fire and police officers, senior councillors, road safety officers and people involved in the making of the film.

The Live Now, Drive Later campaign was launched earlier this year after an inquest was held into a triple fatal accident in Stockton Lane, York, in 2006, in which two 15-year-old boys and a van driver for The Press were killed.

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

Tony Clarke, pictured, City Screen manager, said he was keen to support the campaign by showing the film.

"Films can be a valuable means of communicating information to people," he said.

"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, the son of the Press van driver, Peter Alexander, and two boys who were in Joel's car initially but got out only minutes before the crash.

Other interviewees include former North Yorkshire traffic policeman Ken Moss, who was blinded in both eyes when he crashed on the A64 while pursuing a joy rider. He was hoping to travel over from Scarborough today to attend the premiere.

The film also depicts a fictional dramatisation of an incident in which a teenager, played by Matt McGale, a Tadcaster Grammar School student from Copmanthorpe, is tempted into joyriding, and then suffers horrific injuries after crashing the car.

Scenes were filmed around York, with the final harrowing scenes shot on an empty ward at York Hospital.

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.

When it was shown publicly for the first time at Archbishop Holgate's School - which was attended by Joel Corner and his friend Daniel Wright, who also died in the crash - it was greeted by stunned silence.

Police and fire officers said afterwards they were convinced the film would succeed in making youngsters think twice before they took a car without permission.