Family of crash victim target young drivers with recklessness warning

Tom Atkinson, 19, from Driffield, was killed as a passenger in an accident in Germany in August 2005, and following his death his mother Rosie, brother Ben, and family and friends set up the Take One Moment (TOM) Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers on the roads for young drivers.

Rosie and Ben will be at the launch of the foundation’s Christmas campaign at Hull College, when they will warn of the dangers of reckless driving, and of getting in a car with a driver whose actions behind the wheel may put lives at risk.

Mrs Atkinson said: “This event should have a very strong impact on the young people and we will all be speaking with a strong unified voice about the pain and suffering caused by dangerous driving.

“My son Tom was only 19 when he died. At the time, he was training to be a tennis player and had just started out on the professional circuit.

“Now one of the main purposes of the TOM Foundation’s campaigning is to raise awareness about reckless driving among young people.

“They have to be aware that nobody’s infallible and the consequences of bad driving can be very harsh indeed – not just for themselves but their families as well. We’re asking them to ‘take one moment’ to think about what they are doing.”

She added: “If I can spare one family from going through what we’ve gone through and, more importantly, save one young life, all the hard work will have been worth it.”