For the second year in a row, students from Salford City College attended the ‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive’ performance at Middleton Arena. This year’s performance featured a familiar voice, in the form Britain’s Got Talent star and former FutureSkills student Ella Shaw.
Eighteen-year-old Ella, who completed her Creative Music course at the College this year, attended ‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive’ with Salford City College last year, and was inspired to write a song following her experience. The song is written from the perspective of somebody killed in a collision, and was used as part of this year’s performance.
‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive’ was launched last year by Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service, North West Ambulance Service, Salford Royal NHS Trust, HMP Forest Bank, Greater Manchester Police and bereaved family members in an attempt to reduce the number of young driver deaths.
The 90 minute performance featured emergency service staff, convicted offenders, surviving victims of collisions and families that have lost loved ones, and each spoke to the audience about their experiences of a road traffic collision.
Carpentry and Joinery student Michal Markowski, 17, commented: “The performance was really heart-touching and it made me feel sorry for all the people that died.”
Classmate Jamie Hofman, also 17, added: “I really enjoyed listening to the different stories, especially when the father started talking about his son who had been involved in a fatal car accident. I think he was really brave to talk about losing his child in front of hundreds of people.”
