YOUNG drivers will be shown the dangers of the road in hard-hitting presentations starting next week.

More than 15,000 teenagers from schools and colleges across the Thames Valley will see the Safe Drive Stay Alive production over the next three weeks.

The event includes talks from victims of road accidents and advice from police, ambulance, and fire services.

The productions will start on Monday. Superintendent Chris Brown, head of Roads Policing for Hampshire and Thames Valley Police, said: “Safe Drive Stay Alive is about making young people aware of the many dangers they face and the impact of their actions behind the wheel on themselves, their friends, family, and also the emergency services that deal with them.

“Road death is the biggest killer of young people in the UK. Each week, more than two people die and around 180 are injured in collisions on the roads in Thames Valley.”

Of the 1,698 fatal and serious injury road accidents in Oxfordshire in 2011, 517 involved a driver aged between 17 and 24. And out of the 638 fatal and serious injury collisions from January to May this year, 186, or 29 per cent, involved young drivers.