A national program that has halved the number of crashes for P plate drivers is set to close as both the Government and Coalition fail to commit necessary funding.
Ben Haythorpe, Royal Automobile Association of South Australia’s senior manager, community education, says the successful driver education program, keys2drive, will be shut down later this year when the current funds expire.
“keys2drive has delivered more than 190,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parent’s right across the country. These lessons are provided by specially accredited driving instructors to not only guide the learner driver, but also their mum or dad who will be supervising a bulk of their practice hours.
“With car crashes being one of the leading killers of young people in this country, it’s unbelievable that the Government and Coalition are sitting on their hands with this,” says Haythorpe.
“Here we have a tried and tested program that is proven to reduce the number of crashes for provisional drivers, and in turn save lives, and Canberra is prepared to let it close.
“Five years ago both the ALP and the coalition committed to provide funds to establish keys2drive. Now that the program is up and running and a success, we would like to know what’s changed in their minds,” says Haythorpe.
Earlier this year the University of New South Wales completed a research project that compared the self-reported crash rates of P plate drivers who had completed a keys2drive lesson vs those that hadn’t.
P plate drivers who had not completed keys2drive have a self-reported crash rate of 9.9% in NSW and 9.6% in Queensland. Those who have completed a keys2drive lesson have a self-reported crash rate of 4.5%.
The study also found that keys2drive learners:
– spend longer than average on their L plates
– achieve a higher than average number of hours under supervision
– are less likely to break the road rules
– are less likely to crash when they are on their P plates
“Learning to drive is an important life skill and quality, available driver education can literally mean the difference between life and death,” says Haythorpe.
“We need to properly invest in driver education and stick with programs that work.”
RAA is calling for a commitment of $13 million over three years (or $4.33 million per year) from both major parties to keep keys2drive going.
Join the conversation