YOUNG Asian men are being hit with shock tactics in an attempt to break the fatal trend of show off' driving in high-powered cars.

The initiative was launched less than a year after Suhel Congress and Irfan Ahmed Musa died instantly in a high-speed crash on the A59.

Teenage boys are made to watch horrific videos' of joy-riding crashes and given anti-drugs talks before themselves being cut free from a car wreckage by firefighters.

The 11-week Kick Start Safe Driving Project aims to challenge perceptions among Asian youths that dangerous driving is cool after research showed that ethnic minorities are also three times more likely to be injured in an accident than whites. Police said that high-speed driving was an issue for all youngsters but that Asian youths were a particular problem because of their desire to use high-powered, top-of-the-range sorts cars.

The course has specifically targeted Blackburn's Bastwell ward, where there is a high ethnic minority population, and is open to 15-19-year-old who receive free driving lessons in either a car or a simulator, depending on their age.

Today the initiative was praised by the family of Suhel Congress, who died last August aged just 21.

An inquest into his and 24-year-old Irfan Musa's deaths found that Mr Musa was "too inexperienced" to handle the 150mph £50,000 Mercedes CLK 500 Avant-garde supercar he was driving.

The pair both died instantly when the car went out of control at 70mph.

Mr Congress' family have already called for crash barriers and speed cameras to be placed on the road a dual carriageway which has a speed limit of 60mph.

Three other young men from the Bastwell area of Blackburn were killed on the same road in December 2004, including 27-year-old driver Shakil Mohammed Ahmed, of Tenby Close, who an inquest found was high on heroin and driving at 100mph.

Passengers Makhdoom Ali, 21, and Shamsuddin Desai, 18, both of Whitewell Place, died.

Gulam Congress, Suhel's father, said: "Anything that raises awareness and makes people realise how precious their life is is a good thing.

"When you lose a family member you realise how sacred life is and although we will never get over losing Suhel we want as much to be done as possible to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else's son.

"The car my son was in lost control and hit a tree.

"If they had been more careful and there had been crash barriers along the road then he may still be alive."

Suhel's sister, Ruhina added: "I hope these young men take the safety message on board and realise that anyone can have a car crash.

"I was having driving lessons at the time of Suhel's accident but after what happened I was so shocked and I have been too frightened to go back out on the roads since.

"I see young men driving fast and showing off and it scares me as I know what happened to my brother."

Sergeant Stuart Isherwood from the Road Policing Unit, based in Accrington, said: "This is an issue for newly qualified white drivers too but there is a trend among young Asian males to favour high powered and top of the range cars and I am pleased that the potential risks of that has been identified."

Sergeant Stuart Roberts, from the neighbourhood police team, said: "As a community beat manager I regularly see things that horrify and frighten me.

"Young Asian lads, aged 17 to 25 driving at excessive speed in a dangerous manner and not wearing seat belts basically thinking they are car proof."

The project has been masterminded by The Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative, Blackburn North Healthy Living Centre and Capita Road Safety with help from the Fire Service, Police drugs officers, Paramedics And tutors from BSM.