Michelin Teams Up With Drive iQ To Protect Young Road Users
Michelin Tyre PLC is backing the award winning social enterprise Drive iQ to help educate young drivers about road safety.
Drive iQ is an online educational platform aimed at beginner and young drivers, which highlights hazardous road scenarios in a virtual environment. The tool accelerates frontal lobe maturation (not usually fully developed until early to mid-twenties) and improves the skills often lacking in young drivers, such as anticipating danger, risk management, considering emotional response and being a responsible passenger.
Drive iQ consists of six modules: Eye Scanning, Distraction, Anatomy of a Crash, Perception, Seatbelts and Cycling. All the modules aim to help with: driving awareness, improving observations, coping with distractions and avoiding crashes. Nearly 500 schools have signed up to the scheme so far, with the platform quickly becoming the preferred choice for schools and colleges.
Eric Le Corre, Managing Director of Michelin Tyre PLC said, “At Michelin we not only supply tyres that ensure optimum safety for drivers and their passengers, but we also promote good practice among road users. Drive iQ provides essential education to a particularly vulnerable group and my hope is that as many young people, their parents and teachers as possible use Drive iQ, as it is an issue that concerns us all.
“Our commitment at Michelin begins by advising all our employees to use and share Drive iQ with their family, friends and the communities where we operate. I urge as many other businesses as possible to do the same.”
Sarah Rowley, CEO of the Drive iQ programme said “Whether your child is 16 and thinking about learning to drive, currently having driving lessons, being driven by their peers, or has just passed their test, Drive iQ is relevant for them. We are very lucky to have these world-class resources available to us and extremely grateful to Michelin for their sponsorship. In this case better education has the power to save lives”.
Road crashes are the biggest accidental killer of 15-24 year olds in the UK. A study1 by the Department of Transport reveals that young drivers make up a quarter of all road fatalities despite only representing one in eight of all UK license holders. Inexperience is not the only factor working against young drivers; their brain development, attitude and behaviour contribute to 19 out of 20 crashes, not their vehicle handling skills.
1Statistics from the Department of Transport, RAS30024, 29th September, 2011
