A Lesson In Confidence

Sun Herald

Sunday January 18, 2009

Becky Barker

JOHN BROOKING believes safe driving courses hold the key to a reduced road toll. The manufacturing manager from rural Victoria recently completed a defensive driving course with Murcotts Driving Excellence and says it helped save his life.

"I was at an intersection, the traffic lights turned green and a guy was running a red light," he says. "If I hadn't looked both ways before taking off that night, as we were taught on the course, I would have ended up having an accident on the driver's side."

There are no statistics proving such courses reduce accidents but some insurance companies suggest they do. AAMI insurance conducts free skilled driver courses for licensed under-25s and 50,000 have attended since 1982.

"A lot of younger drivers question why Mum or Dad has put them on the course but it really opens their eyes," AAMI's corporate affairs manager, Mike Sopinski, says. "It's not about high-speed pursuits, it's about raising awareness in a number of scenarios they enact on the road."

Twenty-year-old Rebecca Corven, of Eastwood, feels more confident after completing a similar course with Driver Skills Australia. She and her sister, Amy, 17, did the level-one defensive driver course, which boosts observation and handling skills.

It's a popular choice for P-platers, who are three times more likely to have a crash in which at least one person is injured or killed.

Mark Toole, an instructor with NRMA Safer Driving Schools, which runs refresher lessons, says research suggests the longer drivers stay in an educational environment, the safer they are.

© 2009 Sun Herald

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