Academy sets children on road to safe driving

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Laurie Purnell Prynn got an early taste of life behind the wheel at the Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy, opened by Lewis Hamilton this week.

The academy at Mercedes-Benz World, at the former Brooklands race track near Weybridge in Surrey, will host Britain's first permanent school for very young motorists.

It was inspired by statistics that show a third of car drivers killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads are aged under 25.

Organisers hope the course will allow young people to make mistakes on safe off-road circuits rather than public roads.

The course is open to 12- to 16-year-olds (Laurie will be able to sign up after his birthday in October) who are at least 1.5 metres tall.

As well as learning how to drive, participants are taught to cope with greasy or icy roads, the dangers of distractions such as loud music, as well as good road manners and how to resist pressure to go faster.

There are courses for those aged 17 and over who have a provisional licence or have just passed their test.

Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony, who taught the Formula One champion to drive, said it would help young drivers get over the urge to take risks. "You've got that huge excitement of what it's like to do 70mph that overtakes everything," he said.

Senior driving coach Nev Pooley said: "Here we can teach aspects of driving you can't do on the roads. An emergency stop at 70mph, like we do here, would obviously be dangerous on a public road." Laurie judged his first 20 minutes of driving "fun, and a lot easier to steer than a go-kart".