Ngoo and co get driving lessons
Members of the Reds' U21 squad were taught a valuable lesson about the hazards of dangerous driving by Merseyside Police at a Chevrolet-supported driver awareness course at the Academy.
The likes of Stephen Sama, Michael Ngoo, Krisztian Adorjan and Nacho were all given an important demonstration on driving dangers.
The ground-breaking safety initiative for novice drivers, called 'Engage', was launched by the Merseyside Road Safety Partnership - a collaboration between Merseyside Police, the five local authorities and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
The scheme aims to deliver a high standard of driving tuition to novice drivers across the region.
Among the topics that the Academy squad were taught to be aware of behind the wheel were distraction, influence of others, fatigue, speed, drink and drugs, medication and seatbelts.
These are all factors that Merseyside Police see as contributing to the number of people killed and injured on the roads every year.
Liverpool's official supplier of cars Chevrolet were proud to support the event and the Academy players were put through a series of tests including an illustration of the dangers of driving while using a mobile phone, blurred vision and distractions with the car stereo at full blast.
Seargeant Paul Mountford from Merseyside Police said: "Our aim is to give the young footballers an input into road safety and telling them about the importance of safe driving when they get behind the wheel.
"We had the supervisors taking the young drivers around the cones we placed in the Academy car park, and we got them to wear some special goggles which distorts their vision and affects their judgement showing the effect of using alcohol and drugs when behind the wheel.
"It is important to send out this message and hopefully the things we are doing can prevent accidents in the future."
Northern Ireland right-back Ryan McLaughlin is currently learning to drive and admitted he found the exercise useful.
He said: "I enjoyed it and it was a good day with the lads away from the training pitch as well as learning some very important messages about safe driving.
"It hits hard when you realise how blurred your vision gets when wearing the special goggles and it sends out a very important message."
Driving instructor Peter Barnes from the Rainbow driving school said: "I think the important message is the goodness behind this Engage scheme and it's important to highlight this for young drivers.
"There are a lot of driving instructors in this scheme and it's also good for parents and we want to involve them when we do the training with the young people."
