Forget "Pole Position". You can test your driving abilities online.

As kids, we would have hours of fun playing the video game "Pole Position". See how fast we could go, try for that coveted first spot, amaze ourselves with those awesome wipe-outs. As a adults, some of us drive like we're still playing Pole Position: driving faster than we should, racing to be first at the light, except the wipe-outs aren't as much fun anymore.

Every day, drivers face risks on the road. People texting and talking on cell phones are the high-profile ones right now, but there is also road and weather conditions, and other drivers who just exhibit bad driving behaviours. In a perfect world, every driver would have the skills of a race car driver (less the excessive speed), and the cautious driving habits of Hoke Colburn in "Driving Miss Daisy" (with just a bit more speed).

Young Drivers of Canada and State Farm®, in support of National Road Safety 2011 initiatives, have created the first online driving test to encourage safe driving practices, with a special focus on distracted driving.

Just like Pole Position, this is an online video competition that pits players against the online contestants (ages 17 to 71) to score higher than them. The idea is to identify and judge the risks in the road scenarios, and see how safe a driver you really are.

Peter Christianson, President of Young Drivers of Canada said, “The most recent statistics from Transport Canada report 2,767 fatalities and a total of 194,177 injuries. Collisions are predictable and preventable and our hope is that in Canada’s National Year of Road Safety, we can all focus on working together to change risky driving behaviours and help save lives.”

The National Driving Test launches on Monday, January 31st, and can be found on Bell Sympatico at http://autos.sympatico.ca/safety-guide/7650/national-driving-test

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