Night-time crashes driving new road campaign

YOUNG drivers will be the focus of a new road safety campaign to reduce night-time trauma.

Parental Control will urge learner drivers to ensure they include more driving hours at night and in bad weather.

It comes as research shows Pplaters are seven times more likely to be killed or injured while driving at night.

Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll said it was critical learner drivers practised in “all conditions”

“When you are graduating to becoming a P-plater, it’s the most risky time for you in your whole lifetime of driving a motor vehicle,” he said.

“We know the more varied experience, the better driver they will become once they’ve graduated to their Ps. It’s so important, that partnership with the parent or guardian to give them as much practice as possible at all times of day.”

Learner drivers must achieve a minimum of 20 hours at night of their total 120 learner hours to obtain their P-plates.

Between 2015 and 2020, 72 young drivers aged 18-25 lost their lives, according to Transport Accident Commission (TAC) data. More than one-third of the fatalities occurred between 10pm and 6am. On average, about 31 first-year P-platers are killed or seriously injured while driving at night in Victoria each year.

TAC chief executive Joe Calafiore said that while the state had made “terrific gains” with road trauma over the past decade “there is still so much more to be done”.

The new campaign will run until mid-May.