VAST

“Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the leading cause of death for young people aged 15–29.” (WHO, 2015). The European Commission states “The young people, between 15 and 24 years old, make up 11% of the population but 17% of all road fatalities. This means that the young still face the largest risk in traffic” (Road Safety in European Union, March 2015). VAST aims to embrace the potential of next generation virtual reality technologies in an effort to address the overrepresentation of young people in road crashes by focusing on a problem of European concern such as young people’s drink/drug-driving behaviour. Drink-driving is identified as a main contributor to 30% of the fatal and 9% of the non-fatal injuries (ATC, 2011). Still research shows that 7.8% of the young driver respondents had driven after drinking alcohol while 20% rode with a driver who had been drinking (CDCP, 2016). Drug-driving is a main behavioural factor in 7% of the fatal and 2% of the non-fatal crashes (ATC, 2011).Currently an unfolded potential to build on the project partners’ massive track record (projects ACCORD, LIVES, HEROES, VRS, AVENUE, IMPACT and ENWA) in deploying Information technologies through peer-to-peer communication strategies will be sought with the advancement and availability of virtual reality experience. A tailored International campaign specifically designed to engage and appeal to contemporary and future generations of drivers will be designed to harvest the power of those technologies for social and public good. The project will offer the young people to experience « what it’s like to drive a car whilst drunk, on Ecstasy, high on Cannabis and tripping on Magic Mushrooms ». To achieve that the VAST consortium intends to turn young road safety volunteers into multipliers that encourage safe driving of other young people. The last will be able to « drive stoned » in safety and learn about the dangers of mixing substance abuse and cars through a new Joint International Road Safety Campaign. The opportunity will let them choose their « high » and step behind the wheel of a virtual car to experience simulated experiences and precisely how badly their perception of reality and therefore driving competence is affected. The results will be disseminated through Youth Summits on Road Safety. Diverse set of stakeholders will be involved in the project implementation through Project advisory groups (PAG) in Europe and South America. The VAST output will be 5 implementations of the Joint International Road Safety Campaign involving 3000 direct participants, 15 trained youth workers, 25 trained volunteers, 16 youth workers’ mobilities, 10 PAG meetings, 250 participants in 5 National Youth Summits on Road Safety, 35 participants in the European Youth Road Safety Summit, 25 participants in the South American Youth Road Safety Summit, 10 000 people through information materials and 500 000 through conventional and social media.