Widely accepted as the most prestigious award in the PR and communications sector, the awards ceremony will take place on 17 March in New York. The FIA-Michelin road safety initiative has been nominated in three categories: Cause-Related Campaign of the Year, Community Relations Campaign of the Year and Public Affairs Campaign of the Year.

Recent research in the US revealed that road crashes are the number one cause of death amongst young drivers and are responsible for over 5,000 deaths each year. The research also confirmed that 12% of accidents involving inexperienced drivers can be attributed to tyre-related issues.

To tackle the problem, Michelin, partner of the FIA Action for Road Safety campaign since 2011, launched the ‘Beyond the Driving Test’ campaign in order to educate young drivers on the importance of regular tyre checks and tyre maintenance.

The three main goals of the campaign are:

1. to improve driver education programmes across the United States;  
2. to build public awareness through partnerships with key road safety influencers and organizations that will ultimately lead to governmental action and change;
3. to reinforce Michelin’s commitment to road safety in the US and to remind drivers of the importance of tyre check-ups through activations targeting teenagers.

The ‘Beyond the Driving Test’ campaign offers teenagers new resources to help them and their parents brush up on their own car and tyre maintenance skills, including a downloadable glove compartment guide with key tips.

In addition, Michelin supported the campaign with videos by popular teenage YouTube stars sharing tyre safety tutorials. Featured videos include videos by Brent Rivera (532,000 views) and the American pop-rap duo Jack and Jack (461,000 views).   

The FIA and Michelin are also working with national groups and state organizations to meet the goal of having all 50 States in America include tyre safety information in driver training programmes by 2020 and thus help save lives on the road.

 To learn more, visit http://beyondthedrivingtest.com

To download the ‘Beyond the Driving test’ infographic, click here