STUDENTS across North Yorkshire are being encouraged to use their film-making talents to help cut the number of motorists killed or seriously injured on the roads.

The 95 Alive York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership has launched a new competition, called Call The Shots, for school, college and university students who are asked to produce a short video aimed at conveying road safety messages to young people.

The winning videos will be featured on the partnership’s YouTube channel, which was launched earlier in the summer to show the consequences of careless driving. It will be shown to young people at road safety events across North Yorkshire.

The competition will work alongside a national competition, In The Can, which offers the chance of winning £1,000.

David Bowe, chairman of 95 Alive, said: “We’ve had a lot of success with the launch of our YouTube channel, which serves to highlight the power that viral videos can have.

“We’re now throwing a challenge out to the talented students of North Yorkshire to get involved and help us to reduce the number of people being killed and injured on our roads.

“Almost 2,500 people to date have viewed our videos targeting motorcyclists and we are hoping to build upon this with the winning videos from this competition.”

Last year, 14 people aged 16 to 24 were killed and 117 were seriously injured on roads in North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Councillor Gareth Dadd, executive member for road safety, said: “We hope youngsters take up this challenge because they’re the ones who know what will grab the attention of other young people, and what messages might work.”

Details of the competition can be found at roadwise.co.uk/competition.

The link for the YouTube Channel is youtube.com/ninety5alive