STUDENTS aged from 17 to 24 will take part in a driving campaign, The Honest Truth, to reduce the number of young people killed or injured in car accidents.

The campaign’s eight key messages will be delivered by driving instructors in Wiltshire to students learning to drive.

The key messages are not to speed, not to drive under the influence of drink or drugs, not to use mobile phones behind the wheel, for everyone in the car to wear seat belts, not to show off behind the wheel, to make sure you are properly insured and that you know how to avoid being distracted while driving.

Seventeen to 24-year-olds only make up 10 per cent of the population but account for half of injury crashes at night, more than a third of the people arrested after failing a breath test after a crash, half of crashes blamed on speed and nearly half of injury crashes that happen in the rain.

Philip Whitehead, Swindon’s portfolio holder for highways, said: “So many young people are injured or killed on the roads.

“We hope that educating students who are learning to drive about these dangers will make them think not only about their own driving, but also about how they behave as a passenger.”

Honest Truth include the Fire & Rescue Service, Police, Wiltshire and Swindon councils and driving instructors.