A SCHEME to steer motorists of the future on the road to safe driving is back on track, despite fears it could run out of funding.

WiseDrive – Drive for Life has been successfully run by Durham Police’s motoring section since 2001.

It has seen 12,000 teenagers visiting force headquarters at Aykley Heads, Durham, to learn a series of basic road safety techniques.

The project was launched as research showed 40 per cent of all road collisions involve people aged 17 to 25, despite only making up a tenth of all licence holders.

Those taking part are in the school Year 11, aged 15 and 16, all eligible to apply for a driving licence within the following 18 months.

Fears were expressed that last year’s WiseDrive could be the last, owing to increasing problems finding funding amid general climate of austerity. But the use of fees paid by errant motorists attending speed awareness workshops has now provided a lifeline for WiseDrive.

Drivers choosing to pay and attend the workshops do so as an alternative to prosecution for some motoring misdemeanours.

It has enabled £10,000 to be set aside for this year’s WiseDrive, which runs until September 27.

Ros Pluck, traffic management and casualty reduction manager with the joint Cleveland and Durham police specialist operations unit, said the money from workshops come back to the force for use encouraging road safety and casualty reduction.

“It’s really good news that we’re now able to use that money to educate the drivers of tomorrow.”

PCs Ruth Barrett and Sam Stevens run the sessions, having picked up the mantle from PC Dave Nixon, who devised and ran every WiseDrive from inception until he retired last year.

Among the would-be drivers attending this year’s WiseDrive was a 15-strong party from The Education Village, in Haughton, Darlington.

Year manager Matthew Cooper described it as, “an eye-opening experience”

for the youngsters involved.

“It shares some hard-hitting facts and figures that a large number of road users would benefit from seeing.”

He said the academy would follow up the WiseDrive project by staging a driving lesson experience for a further 50 students later this term.