A St Colman’s College student has beaten hundreds of other young drivers across Ireland in a major technology backed competition to find the country’s ‘Safest Young Driver.’ Using new innovative ‘black box’ equipment to determine driving performance skill and ability over 10 full weeks 18 year old student Dean Zerai made it safely home with the highest score among the 48 drivers who made it to the shortlist. Along with Ireland’s top safe young driver title for his skills behind the wheel Dean now gets to enjoy a full year of free motoring up to 4,000 Euro which includes fuel car maintenance costs and insurance. Organised by leading accident services provider CRASH and supported by the Hooper Dolan Insurance Group as part of an initiative aimed at raising road safety awareness among younger drivers the competition included entrants from right across Ireland who between them clocked 112,000 miles of monitored driving over the 10 week challenge. Accepting his all-island title and prize Dean said: “To come out on top in a competition of this scale is hugely rewarding and I am proud of what I have achieved. Being closely monitored by an in-car computer was a challenge at times but it did force me to maintain my focus and with the results now in I’m really pleased that my concentration really paid off.” Tony McKeown from CRASH added: “Young drivers are often unfairly labelled as potentially more irresponsible or unsafe on the roads and while there is still much work to be done in encouraging safer driving among this key group we were thrilled by the overwhelming response from right across Ireland and the commitment these young people made to taking part. It just goes to show that are next generation of drivers are keen willing and able to embrace safer driving right from the start – and that is something to be encouraged.”
Newry Democrat
8th July 2014
“