1. CLOSE TO AUSTRIA “Young drivers who are confronted with stories of severe road accidents presented by people of the same age are less likely to engage in risky and reckless driving ” Promoting safer driving

2. Road traffic accidents are the primary cause of death amongst Europe’s youth under 25. The main cause is reckless driving, frequently by recently qualified, inexperienced young drivers. The CLOSE TO project puts those who have been involved in a road accident first hand, in the role of Peer Mentors who share their experience learner drivers. About CLOSE TO

3. Promoting safer driving Mentors are often youths that are responsible for accidents which have killed or maimed someone and who are facing legal penalties. Young learner drivers brought face to face with the practical consequences of accidents are often subdued and shocked by what they hear. The accident prevention work carried out by the Mentors, who are supported by a coach, can count towards a mitigation of their sentence. About CLOSE TO

4. Promoting safer driving To reduce the number of deaths on the road by bringing perpetrators face to face with those most at risk of committing an offence in order to render the notion of safe driving less abstract. To use a young person’s traumatic experience of the realities of dangerous driving as a deterrent, through peer to peer learning. To have these contact sessions integrated into the Austrian driving school curriculum. To have young drunk drivers who have caused a serious accident reflect on what it is they have done through the repeated lectures they give to learners, and to have them attend accident prevention courses. The aims of CLOSE TO

5. Promoting safer driving The courses are highly effective in preventing accidents due to fact that the Mentors and learners are peers. Awareness is much higher among those who have attended the classes with 92% of learner drivers saying they found the exercise very interesting and 86% saying the message was effective. Follow up a few months later reveals 70% feel their own behavior behind the wheel has changed as a result of the course – 20% say they remembered the course when they themselves were feeling the effect of alcohol. The results of CLOSE TO

6. Promoting safer driving Since 2004 a total of about 7 997 young beginner drivers have attended the classes – 286 of which have been held in driving schools around the country. Sentences are suspended conditionally, within a pre determined probationary period, subject to the offender giving courses. This means the young offender is not taken out of their professional and social environment. Nearly every Federal state in Austria has taken up the project. The results of CLOSE TO

7. Promoting safer driving Five times a year drivers who have provoked an accident, and are serving prison sentences, are recruited to take part in the project. This gets young people out of prison, into the community in a way that enables others to learn from their experience and so avoid taking the same path. The young offender is forced to reflect on the reality of their crime through repeatedly recounting it and the young drivers are brought face to face with the consequences of dangerous driving. CLOSE TO is an alternative or supplementary sanction that can be applied to penal proceedings across the EU An innovative approach to accident prevention