FIVE young people from the Thames Valley area have won an iPod after entering an online competition run as part of the regional Safe Drive Stay Alive campaign.

They will be presented with their prize tomorrow.

Safe Drive Stay Alive was launched in November last year. In just one week about 10,000 16-18 year olds visited venues in Oxford, Reading, High Wycombe and Milton Keynes to see this unique film and theatre event which explores the circumstances that can lead to a crash on the road and the consequences that follow.

Every year, nine young people are killed and 1,000 seriously injured on average on the roads in the Thames Valley.

As part of the campaign, a competition was run on the Safe Drive Stay Alive website www.safedrive.org.uk giving participants the chance to win one of five iPods. Entrants were asked how many police officers are needed to investigate a fatal road collision.

The five winners, who all correctly answered that seven police officers are needed, were contacted this week and Superintendent Mick Doyle, head of Thames Valley Police Roads Policing department, and representatives from the participating highways authorities and the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, will be visiting them at their schools to present them with their prize.

They are Lisa Taplin from Chipping Norton School, Tapiwa Makanda from Sir William Ramsey School, High Wycombe, Adam Tyrrell from Waddesdon C of E School. There are two other winners who will be receiving their prize shortly.

Mandy Rigault, senior road safety officer at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "We hope that by running this competition we have encouraged young people to think about the number of people that are affected by a fatal road collision."

Supt Doyle, said: "We must do everything we can to try and reduce the number of young people being killed or seriously injured on the roads.

"Safe Drive Stay Alive is a massive campaign with a big audience and from the feedback we received after last year's events, we believe it really made a difference to young people's attitude towards driving."

"The shows are hard-hitting and impactive. The campaign was such a success last year that we will be running the events over two weeks and hope to increase the audience at the events to 16,000 students this year. We want to do everything we can to reduce the number of families that have to go through the grief of losing a son, daughter, brother or sister in a road crash."

The campaign is the result of a partnership effort between Thames Valley Police, three fire and rescue services, the ambulance service, hospital accident and emergency staff, road safety officers from councils across the region and the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership.

The Safe Drive Stay Alive events in 2007 will be run from November 5-16. Schools will be contacted shortly to invite them to bring their students. The seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.