Ford Defensive Driving Academy opened its doors for young drivers in Nizhniy Novgorod

29 September 2015

Young drivers in Nizhniy Novgorod have received an opportunity to improve their driving skills for free with the Ford Defensive Driving Academy program, held in the city for four days from September 24 to September 27 at  Lot 55, Ankudinovka station, Kstovskiy district. Ford Defensive Driving Academy is a program for drivers with less than three years of driving experience aimed at teaching defensive driving skills. Program launch in Russia has been organized by Road Safety Russia in cooperation with Ford Sollers.

Organizers of Ford Defensive Driving Academy chose six Russian cities to be venues for practice courses on defensive driving. Those cities are Nizhniy Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Samara, and Rostov-na-Donu. The choice was made based on analysis of road accidents involving young drivers, population size, and road traffic intensity in various Russian cities.

On the first day of Ford Defensive Driving Academy, September 24, the organizers held a press conference with participation of the Deputy Head of the Nizhniy Novgorod Department of the State Road Traffic Inspectorate at the Russian Ministry of Interior Alexander Azovtsev, Head of the Center A driving school Alexander Bulanov, and Road Safety Russia director Vadim Melnikov.

“Drivers with less than three years of driving experience are both the most dangerous and unprotected road users. When developing the project, we tried to cover all the most common mistakes made by young drivers and include corresponding exercises in the program. We do hope that, despite such a short period of time, we’ve able to not only cover the basics of driving and road accident prevention, but also to communicate the idea of the necessity of further driving education after driving school graduation,” – Road Safety Russia director Vadim Melnikov commented on the results of the project.

Deputy Head of the Nizhniy Novgorod Department of the State Road Traffic Inspectorate at the Russian Ministry of Interior Alexander Azovtsev shared region statistics on road accidents involving young drivers: “In 2014, there was 1,127 road accident in Nizhniy Novgorod with young drivers at fault, with 110 people killed and 1,503 injured. In comparison with 2013, road accident rates increased by 11.6%, road death rates – by 15.8%, road injury rates – by 8.1%.

In first eight months of 2015, there was a decrease in the rates of road accidents with novice drivers at fault in Nizhniy Novgorod: 362 road accidents were registered, with 20 killed and 530 injured. In comparison with the corresponding figures of 2014, there was a decrease of 28% in road accident rates, of 55.6% in road death rates, of 25% in road injury rates”.

Project educational trainings aim to reduce the risks associated with the most common causes of road accidents involving unexperienced drivers:

  • According to 2014 statistics, the most common violations made by young drivers are failure to yield right of way (5,510 road accidents in Russia, 228 road accidents in Nizhniy Novgorod region) and failure to adjust their speed to specific conditions on the road (4,180 and 170 road accidents respectively). The most dangerous violations – failure to adjust the speed to specific conditions on the road (629 people killed in Russia, 18 – in Nizhniy Novgorod region) and wrong way driving (972 and 43 people killed respectively).
  • Most common road accidents involving young drivers are collisions. In 2014, collisions accounted for 52% of all road accidents, 53% of all people killed in traffic, and 58% of all road injuries in Russia; 49%, 56% and 55% respectively – in Nizhniy Novgorod region.  Second most common type of road accidents involving young drivers – pedestrian crash (Russia – 16% of road accidents, 15% of people killed in traffic, 12% of road injuries; Nizhniy Novgorod region – 15%, 10%, and 12% respectively).

Ford Defensive Driving Academy trainings were developed to cover the most common causes of road accidents with young drivers at fault. Driving beginners were taught how to improve their speed and car dimensions perception, and were demonstrated, with the help of special simulators, the consequences of hard braking without safety belts and of cellphone distractions when driving. Said trainings were conducted by professional driving instructors, winners of international and all-Russian competitions.

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