YOUNGSTERS are being put on a hard-hitting course aimed at reducing the number of teens involved in car crashes.

Hundreds of people from across Sussex will take part in the Safe Drive Stay Alive 2017 scheme which launched yesterday.

The event looks at the devastating impact of being involved in a car crash and uses a DVD reconstruction along with live testimonies from emergency services staff and family members affected by road traffic collisions.

Members of the emergency services will speak to students about their experiences, the medical implications and how seeing such trauma affects them personally.

The project is co-ordinated by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service along with Sussex Police, Sussex Safer Roads Partnership and South East Coast Ambulance Service.

The objective of the event is to reduce the number of young people killed and seriously injured on the roads.

Between December 2016 and July 2017 there have been 117 17 to 24-year-olds killed or seriously injured on Sussex roads.

That equates to 14 young people killed or seriously injured every month.

Ella Popely, 18, pictured, died in a crash on December 6 last year.

The Bolney showjumping champion was only travelling at 37mph in her Fiat 500 at the time.

Her inquest heard she applied the brakes too forcefully on a bend, causing her to clip an Audi travelling in the opposite direction.

This caused her Fiat to plunge into a verge and overturn.

Miss Popely, who lived with her family in Bolney, was a student at Burgess Hill School for Girls.

The scheme is aimed specifically at young people who are at the age where they are learning to drive, have just passed their test or are becoming passengers with their friends who are already driving. A spokesman for the scheme said: “The show explores the consequences of being involved in a road collision and uses a DVD reconstruction along with live testimonies from emergency services staff and family members affected by road traffic collisions.

“The event is informative, thought provoking and hard hitting with members of the emergency services and volunteers speaking to students about their experiences, the medical implications and how seeing such trauma affects them personally.”

The scheme launched at The Amex Stadium yesterday and will be at Cardinal Newman Catholic School in The Upper Drive, Hove, today.

Later in the week the scheme will be in Hastings, Eastbourne and Plumpton. For more details visit esfrs.org/news/2017-news/safe-drive-stay-alive-2017.