Play a board game, get a driving licence

Sierra Leone does not have a high standard of driving. Its road death rate is some 800 times worse than that of the UK: last year saw 380 people killed on the nation’s roads, a terrifying statistic in a country of barely 50,000 cars.

Something, clearly, must be done. And that something is… a board game.

We jest not. In in a bid to raise driving standards, Sierra Leone’s police have released a board game that prospective drivers will have to buy and play before taking to the roads.

“It will help a lot,” said Morie Lenghor, an inspector for the country’s police force and inventor of the game. “Most crashes here are a result of ignorance of the highway code.”

Perhaps unsurprising, when most Sierra Leoneans have never taken a driving test, instead paying a small sum of money for their licence.

“I realised that a lot of people don’t like reading much,” explains Lenghor, “but what if I can put the highway code in a game that is attractive to young people?”

You want to know how to play, don’t you? Us to. Details are sadly scarce, but insiders have described the gameplay as “a bit like Scrabble.” However addictive Sierra Leone Road Test Scrabble Battleships might be, we can't imagine it could hold a candle to TopGear's very own family favourite, pictured above and currently riding high at 7,198 in the Amazon games list…

Still, does this make Sierra Leone the only country in the world where you want more points in your driving test, not fewer?