Richmond star helps learner drivers

26 Aug 2003

Media Release - 26 August 2003

Richmond footballer, Darren Gaspar will today attend the Ballarat Youth Week Forum to promote the TAC Help message and the need for learner drivers to gain more experience before they sit their Ps.

Facilitated by Here For Life and sponsored by the TAC - the youth forum is one of six regional forums held throughout the state - giving young people the opportunity to express themselves on a range of social issues.

Darren Gaspar's involvement in the forum is part of Richmond Football Club's community partnership with the TAC.

The Richmond defender says that his involvement in Youth Week is one of many initiatives undertaken by the club to reinforce positive messages among young drivers.

"A lot of young kids take some pretty insane risks on the roads and don't realise that they're stuffing around with their own lives and the lives of their mates.

"Youth Week and the work that we do in schools gets across to kids - hopefully in a positive way - that if they get more experience and slow down a bit, they'll have a lot to look forward to later on.
"It's not hard to understand but sometimes it's good to hear it from people who aren't parents or teachers."

Although learner drivers rarely have crashes, P plate drivers are three times more likely to be involved in crashes than older, more experienced drivers.

International research has shown that if learner drivers gain a minimum of 120 hours supervised driving practice in a range of conditions before they get their driver's licence, they are much less likely to crash.

In the last two years, seven young people aged 18 to 25 years, have died on the roads in the Ballarat area alone and 101 have been seriously injured.

Victoria's road toll currently stands at 228, compared with 267 at the same time last year, a decrease of 15%.

For further information:

Georgina Lyell,
TAC on 03 9664 6591