Warning call on driving games (From Thisisdorset)

Warning call on driving games

9:44am Friday 2nd March 2007 in

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ON-screen driving games should carry warnings in a bid to prevent young drivers confusing fantasy with reality.

That's the view of Dave Merritt who lost his daughter Debbie in a car accident in 2004 after a survey showed that "game boy racers" drive recklessly after playing on computer consoles.

A survey for driving school BMS revealed that more than a third of motorists aged 16 to 24 said they were more likely to go faster on the roads after playing driving games.

As many as 27 per cent admitted taking greater risks after a gaming session and a quarter imagined they were in a driving simulation game while driving for real, with young men the worst offenders.

The findings come just weeks after a teenager accused of causing widow Phyllis Williams' death by dangerous driving admitted he played a computer racing car game in a lay-by shortly before the accident.

A jury accepted that apprentice technician Christopher Hayden, 19, of Ringwood Road and his co-accused James Budden, 28, of Kimmeridge Avenue, Poole, were not racing between Verwood and Three Legged Cross.

They were acquitted and convicted of careless driving.

Hayden told the court how he had played the PlayStation car racing game Gran Turismo in his car before the crash.

Mr Merritt's daughter Debbie was in a car being driven by her boyfriend Steven Dunford when he tried to overtake three vehicles on the A338 near Fordingbridge, lost control and smashed head-on into another car.

Dunford received a £1,000 fine and six-month driving ban after being acquitted of causing death by dangerous driving and convicted instead of careless driving. Video games were not an issue in the case, but Mr Merritt said: "Computer games encourage young, inexperienced drivers to think they are rally drivers.

"They soup up their cars and think that they can drive like they do on-screen.

"These games should carry some sort of a warning.

"You can switch off a computer game but you haven't got that kind of control on the road."

BSM's road safety consultant Robin Cummins said: "This study shows an indisputable link between gaming and dangerous driving."