Course targets teenage drivers
Christchurch teenager Sofie Hampton had never heard of the 12-second rule or the anti-lock braking system before she took part in a new driving course aimed at keeping youth safe on the road.
The free course was focussed on teenage drivers aged from 16 to 18.
The teenagers got to test their driving skills on the open road and had to reach speeds up to 70kmh before they tried to stop as fast as they could.
The new initiative comes from the Christchurch-based Proactive Drive Youth Driver Education Trust, which started 22 years ago. The pilot two-hour classes started a month ago and so far eight teenagers have completed it.
Proactive Drive manager Tim Hartnell said the teenagers had to have their restricted licence, and were given practical skills on how the anti-lock braking system (ABS) worked, and the two and foursecond, and 12-second scanning rules.
It was the first time the trust had hired instructors and took teenage drivers out on the open road, Hartnell said.
The trust would take others onto the course, but were focussed on the 16 to 18-year age group as that was where the high statistics were in road crashes and and road fatalities, he said.
That age group of drivers were involved in 17.7 per cent of Canterbury’s fatal and injury accidents in 2015, and 16.3 per cent nationally.
The drivers went back to the basics and were shown how to scan the road effectively for hazards before they were on top of them, Hartnell said.
A lot of people knew about ABS but did not know what to do in an accident, Hartnell said.
‘‘People who have not experienced ABS braking take their foot off the brake.
‘‘We are getting them to experience how it works.’’
Christchurch Youth Council treasurer Sofie Hampton, who drives an orange Toyota Vitz ‘‘nana car’’, said when she heard about what she had to do with ABS, ‘‘it was a little bit terrifying’’.
She encouraged other teenagers to take part in the programme, and