Yeovil Young Farmers focus on road safety with firefighters

Yeovil Fire Station hosted Yeovil Young Farmers for an evening focussed on safer driving.

Recent statistics show that younger drivers in rural areas are more likely to be involved in accidents due to risky driving behaviour.

Therefore the evening focussed on road traffic collisions (RTCs), how they can happen and how to try and avoid them taking place.

A spokesperson for Yeovil Fire Station said: "The point of the evening was to promote safer driving and encourage positive behaviour change.

"We want to empower young people to speak up and challenge risky driving behaviours before it’s too late.

The fire crew showed young farmers how they rescue occupants of cars (Image: Yeovil Fire Station)

"We appreciate as a young adult and passenger of a driver who is driving too fast – to ask them to slow down, may be a sign of weakness or difficult to do so.

"However, we hope tonight has given you the tools to do this.

"This is your life and don’t let it be destroyed by a preventable road traffic collision."

After a presentation and case study from the fire crew, Green Watch showed the young farmers how they remove a full car roof and extricate a car's occupants.

The road safety team then delivered their recourses to the group by way of virtual reality headsets, intoxicated goggles, a crash car demo, a brake reaction board and a Honda Type R.

The virtual reality headsets in action (Image: Yeovil Fire Station)

Finally, the fire crew showed the young farmers the fire engine and specialist equipment.

The fire crew said that the evening was a great success. They thanked the young farmers for their engagement and said that they are welcome back any time.

They also thanked Wesley Gullin (Taunton Whites), Piotr Czarnecki (Yeovil Whites), Lee Mapletoft (Yeovil On-Call), James Warner & The DSRFS Road Safety Team for making the event happen.