THE victims included 17-year-old Parkstone Grammar pupil Jo Malcolm, Aimee Mead aged 18 and Simon Harley, who was a year older. Matthew Russell, 18 from Ferndown, Carl Symes, 20, of Mudeford and Alexander Mitchell and Paul Trattles, both 20, also numbered among them.

These were just seven of the young people killed on Dorset's roads last year. There were others and many more were seriously injured.

Today the Daily Echo is launching a campaign aimed at helping to cut the heartbreaking toll of young lives lost on the county's highways.

We have called it Too Young To Die.' Over the next ten days, through a series of news stories, features and interviews - and throughout 2008 - we'll be highlighting the issues and looking at potential solutions, including possible changes in the law.

The campaign aims to encourage safer driving by all road users and to assist in educating new and inexperienced drivers - especially young motorists - about the dangers on the road.

The Echo has also teamed up with BSM to offer a half price instruction on the school's driving skills simulator in Bournemouth.

The campaign will be revisited throughout the year and we are encouraging Echo readers to join the debate on safer roads and young drivers.

The statistics make grim reading. One in five youngsters will have an accident in their first year of driving and 17-20 year-olds are ten times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than those in their 40s and 50s.

A massive 35 per cent of those killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads are aged 25 or under.

Police chiefs say alcohol continues to play a major role in accidents - one fifth of 17-year-olds admit drink driving.

Chief Inspector Rick Dowell, Head of Road Traffic Policing for Dorset said he wholeheartedly welcomed the Too Young To Die' initiative.

"The slogan is a dramatic and stark one but it tells it the way it is.

"One death on the roads is one death too many and the pain and suffering for those left behind when a young person loses their life, either as a driver or a passenger, is probably the worst kind, especially for parents."

"If the campaign makes people think about the way they drive and contributes to saving just one life it will have been worth it."

Daily Echo & Advertiser editor Neal Butterworth said: "It is likely that we all know somebody who has been directly or even indirectly affected by a road fatality.

"It is particularly traumatic when that victim is a young person with their lives stretching out ahead of them and we simply want to help young drivers - and their friends and parents - understand the need for greater awareness and caution."

ON TUESDAY:

"THE person is dead and the police have to carry out their investigation. So we go home for five or six hours and all we can think of is that we will be going back later to cut a dead body out of the wreckage."

Dorset's firefighters speak about their roll in dealing with fatal collisions.

VIDEO PLUG:

The Daily Echo spent a night out with Dorset traffic police. Watch the video by clicking the link at the top of this story now.

  • You can join the debate by writing to us at Too Young To Die, Daily Echo Newsdesk, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, BH2 6HH
  • e-mailing newsdesk@bournemouthecho.co.uk
  • faxing 01202 292115
  • Or by adding your comments online below

See Monday's Echo for more on this campaign