Students across North Yorkshire are being encouraged to use their film-making talents to help save lives.

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 being 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, http://www.youtube.com/ninety5alive, which was launched earlier in the summer and 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.

North Yorkshire County Council's Director of Business and Environmental Services David Bowe, the 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."

North Yorkshire County Councillor Gareth Dadd, Executive Member for Road Safety added:"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.

"Last year 14 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 were killed and 117 were seriously injured on roads in North Yorkshire. New technology has meant we now have the ability to make films quickly and easily and we're asking students to use their talent and ingenuity to help us get these vital road safety messages across."

Full details of the competition can be found on the partnership's Roadwise website at www.roadwise.co.uk/competition.

Contact Janet Gleeson 95 Alive Campaign Coordinator on 01609 798304 for more information.

The 95 Alive York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership is a partnership of local authorities, emergency services and other agencies that have a common interest and duty to reduce the number of people who are killed and injured on the roads of York and North Yorkshire. They have set themselves a target to save an additional 95 lives by the end of 2010. This is over and above the 40 per cent reduction in casualties that is already demanded of them by Government.