The young driver awareness surgeries are to be run in the Northern Ireland district of Strabane, and will focus on teaching young people the pitfalls of driving dangerously.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) decided to run the pilot course to address the over-representation of young men injured in road traffic collisions. The courses will focus on young people aged 17 to 24, who will attend voluntarily.
Inspector Ivor Morton said most young people did not pose a problem, but that he wanted to target those who did. "There is a small group of drivers who insist on ruining the fun for others," he said. "Speeding and racing up and down roads and rallying around car parks is unacceptable behaviour and anyone detected by police engaging in dangerous and illegal activity will be prosecuted. Drivers need to be aware of how their behaviour is affecting the quality of life of those around them. Cars revving their engines in residential areas late at night will cause obvious hassles for people trying to get to sleep."
The surgeries will give safety advice to young drivers and will give them the chance to take a closer look at specialist road policing vehicles. Officers will be on hand to offer advice on customising vehicles, to make sure the cars are not illegal.
The surgeries will form part of PSNI's overall road safety strategy, which incorporates its "It Could Be You" roadshow, which depicts graphically how a night out can end in tragedy and permanent disability.
A spokesman for road safety charity RoadPeace said it welcomed the initiative.
"Changing the behaviour and attitude of young drivers is not easy, especially when society shows such tolerance for speeding, the most common form of bad driving," he said. "These programmes need to be evaluated to ensure they are effective. Too many of our young are dying on the road and we cannot afford to waste time and resources on inefficient measures."
