JOY RIDING

The driver of this car was 14 years old. He died instantly in a head-on crash. So did six others. 

14-year-old Scott Howard 'borrowed' his mother's Lancia Delta, gathered three friends and went for a joy-ride. But at 70 mph on a wet road, the car skidded out of control and crashed into a car coming the other way. Two of his passengers and all but one of the five people in the other vehicle died. The day after this accident, police in the Midlands stopped a stolen Ford Fiesta XR2 after a 110 mph motorway car chase. The driver was just 15. 

Joy-riding is one of the most common crimes committed by young people in Britain. Police estimate that a car is stolen every 30 seconds and that in some areas around 65 per cent of all cars stolen are used for joy-riding. 32 per cent of car thefts in London are by people under 17. Five percent of thefts are by 10-13 year olds.

At 15, Dave was given a second-hand car by a friend of his father. A week later, Dave had wrecked the car while attempting to teach himself to drive - so he stole another one. Dave, now 22, went on to become an accomplished joy-rider, taking friends on regular trips to the seaside and sometimes stealing cars every night.

  

1   What is 'joy-riding? 

Read this magazine article. Then discuss with your classmates and write a dictionary-type definition of the expression beginning with  ...

Joy-riding is ....

2   Working with a classmate, complete the following tasks:    

• Did Scott Howard 'borrow' his mother's car? 
• What is perhaps a better word than borrow?
• 'Head-on', '70mph', 'wet', 'skidded out of control', 'crashed', 'coming the other way' are all used to describe Scott Howard's fatal accident.  Translate these words or expressions into Spanish.
• What is the difference between a motorway and a normal road?
• What would you say is the most common crime committed by young people in your country? 
• Find three words which have a similar meaning to 'destroy', 'try', and 'skilful'.