Cambridgeshire: Warning To New Male Drivers

6 January 2012, 06:00 | Updated: 9 January 2012, 11:27

A Cambridgeshire man, who was left brain damaged after crashing his car into a lorry at 18 years old, wants other young drivers to learn from his mistake.

28 year old Nick Bennett, who lives in Papworth, has spent the last ten years in a wheelchair after the crash.

He was trying to overtake two cars when he crashed head-on into a thee tonne lorry.

Now, Nick is supporting a Cambridgeshire County Council campaign to reduce young male driver and female passenger casualties.

Nick said: "Learn from my mistakes.

Don't play the boy racer.

Ten years spent in a wheelchair is not good."

You can listen to an interview with Nick below.

Nick Bennett talks to Heart.

The council campaign Nick is supporting, called ‘Speeding: No one thinks big of you’, was inspired by a similar campaign in Australia and aims to use peer pressure to reduce the number of 17 to 25 year old people involved in accidents.

Road safety messages will be put out via social media including Twitter and Facebook.

Posters featuring students from Huntingdonshire Regional College, which show young females waving their little fingers at young men who are speeding or driving dangerously to show off, will also be publicised. 

In 2010, there were 923 road casualties aged 17 to 25 in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and in 2008 there were more than 1000 - higher than the national average and double the rate of all other age groups. 

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Steve Criswell said: "The campaign aims to stimulate discussion and give passengers the confidence to tell their friends to slow down."

Matt Staton, Road Safety Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council, added "We also want to make young male drivers aware that they don’t impress people when they show off in their cars."