National push for Press DVD

9:25am Saturday 15th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

SENIOR York politicians are to press Government ministers to take The Press's anti-joyriding DVD into classrooms across the country.

York MP Hugh Bayley and Coun David Scott, Labour leader on City of York Council and the authority's Children and Young People's Champion, have both agreed to lobby ministers in support of the newspaper's Live Now, Drive Later campaign.

The 13-minute DVD, featuring a fictional dramatisation about a teenager who takes his parents' car and suffers horrific injuries when he crashes, has had a powerful impact on pupils when shown at schools in the York area. It has been greeted with stunned silence, with police and fire officers saying they are convinced it will make youngsters think twice before they go joy-riding.

The Press wrote several weeks ago to Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick, asking him to help in getting the DVD shown at schools across the country, but has still not received any reply. Now Coun Scott has written to Education Secretary Ed Balls to ask for his help in promoting the message, and has also written in the same vein to directors of education at neighbouring authorities such as Leeds and East Riding of Yorkshire. He told the minister that the campaign was launched last year after an inquest heard how two teenagers and a van driver for The Press had all been killed in a head-on collision in York.

The incident happened after one of the teenagers, who was too young to hold a licence, had taken his father's car without permission.

"It is a powerful film that has a clear and distinct message. It contains interviews with various people affected by "joy-riding", including relatives of two of those killed in the collision that sparked this campaign. I hope you will promote the viewing of this film in every secondary school in the country."

Mr Bayley said he would raise the matter with Mr Fitzpatrick, but also planned to table several parliamentary questions about the extent and impact of joy riding after being lobbied by York councillor Denise Bowgett, who recently organised a showing of the film to a group of young York people. He said some questions, addressed to Justice Secretary Jack Straw, would ask how many people had been prosecuted for joy riding offences over the past five years, how many people had been involved in fatal accidents while driving unlicensed and unqualified and how many people aged under 18 had been prosecuted in relation to fatal accidents.

Other questions, addressed to transport secretary Ruth Kelly, would ask how many fatal accidents involving joy riding there had been over the past five years, and ask what initiatives were being taken by the department to tackle the problem.

Mr Bayley said that when he had received the replies, he would then be in a position to suggest that the Government take a look at what had been done in York to combat the problem.