A MAJOR scheme aimed at cutting the number of young drivers killed on the roads has had a major effect on their attitudes to safety.

The Wasted Lives progra-mme has achieved a “signif-icant” change in the mindset of people who took part, a study has revealed.

The hard-hitting, intera-ctive course was set up alongside the Lancashire Telegraph’s Wasted Lives campaign which called for a series of educational and legal reforms in a bid to cut the number of road deaths caused by young drivers.

Of the 2,800 young people who took part, 76per cent said it would change their behaviour.

And Rhiannon Leeds, of the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, which runs the programme, said other areas across the country were interested in setting up similar schemes. She said: “The results show that Wasted Lives is working.”

Earlier this year the government revealed it had backed away from many of the campaign’s key propos-als, including introducing graduated licensing and raising the licence age to 18 – which had been called for by the Telegraph and the govern-ment’s advisory group, the Transport select committee.

But road safety charities say they have not given up hope and recently renewed calls for graduated licences.

And the calls could be strengthened by the success of the Wasted Lives young driver education progra-mme, running since last July.

It is made up of four modules, looking at the implications of speeding, and wearing seatbelts, the effects of alcohol and drugs on a driver, and the award-winning Missing Matthew film, which charts the story of the Hannon family, who lost their 22-year-old son in a horrific car crash in 2006.

Some of the participants broke down at this stage of the course, and the report said it was always watched in a “very sombre” atmosphere, the report said. And after going on the course, most young people said they would change their behaviour.

The results were deemed “statistically significant” by the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety. It found women had less risky atti-tudes than men, but both were lowered by the programme.

Three months later, 40per cent of people said they had made changes, and 53per cent of passengers had altered their behaviour.

In conclusion, the report said the results “demonst-rate that Wasted Lives is an engaging experience that has a lasting effect on young people.”