Ford conduce tu vida, practical road safety courses for young people

Last week, a road safety programme for young people in Catalonia, aged between 18 and 24, endorsed by the DGT, was presented, showing them in a practical and simple way what it means to face the different situations that can arise when driving a vehicle. For example, we could see extreme situations such as when the rear wheels lose traction, when we must avoid an obstacle, or when we must perform an emergency braking manoeuvre.

The car manufacturer Ford has enjoyed success for 10 years in the United States, and the time has come for young people in our country to benefit from its experience in everyday life. During three days in Barcelona, and previously in Madrid and Valencia, these courses have trained more than 1,000 young people in that age range.

But what matters is not only the situations we may encounter directly while driving and knowing how to deal with them; the driver’s condition also plays a decisive role, especially at that age, which is why particular emphasis is placed on the dangers of drinking alcohol and taking drugs behind the wheel.

The courses began in Madrid at the end of 2013 with the participation of 400 young people. In this second part of the course, in Valencia at the beginning of May and in Barcelona last week, up to 600 young people have been trained, which has allowed us to reach the round figure mentioned earlier. In addition, through its online academy www.conducetuvida.es, they have managed to train more than 16,000 young people. The success of this course is undeniable.

The course is divided into four sections

Ford has managed to convincingly emulate the main causes of road accidents, with the mobile phone as the main distraction, in addition to the aforementioned effects of alcohol and drugs.

Specifically, in one of the sections, called identification of risk situations, participants had to wear a drunk driving suit developed by Ford, which demonstrates how difficult it is to drive after consuming any of these substances. Consisting of tunnel vision goggles, earmuffs and weights on certain parts of the body, participants were unable to walk along a straight line or kick a football.

In another, vehicle control, they faced the continuous sliding of the rear axle when taking corners, with dangerous situations when they failed to control the car and ended up spinning. In addition, they received theoretical lessons on seat and steering wheel positioning while driving and basic notions of mechanics.

A very interesting test that caught our attention was the one called distractions, where the driver had to drive the car around a very winding circuit marked by cones, with just enough distance from the car, while trying to control the mobile phone. Surely more than one person would lose the urge to use it.

And finally, the speed and space control test required an emergency braking manoeuvre and, in the second part, a controlled evasive manoeuvre signalled by traffic lights, and braking in the shortest possible time.

As you can see, these are situations we encounter almost daily when driving our vehicle, and they will allow young people to become aware of the driving errors caused directly by the driver (mobile phone use and substance consumption), or to successfully deal with any of the conditions that may arise (avoiding objects or emergency braking, patches of ice, etc.) while driving.

And finally, in the online academy there will be many more contents such as the correct position of the hands on the steering wheel, the correct seat position, how to deal with locked brakes, speed management, controlling skids and learning to feel the car through the steering wheel.

The day has been long but worthwhile; we went back home with a wealth of theory learned and having seen, in practice, how to face the dangers that a driver must confront at any moment.