The ACT rollout of an innovative driver education program that provides a free driving lesson to learner drivers and their parents - keys2drive - has begun.

Today I joined with students at Daramalan College, some of the Territory's future drivers, to mark this milestone.

• keys2drive is an important new, national road safety initiative. It provides extra incentive for novice drivers to get more on-the-road experience as well as assists those supervising them to become better informed and more confident.

Specifically, keys2drive:

• Gives learner drivers and a parent or mentor a free professional driving lesson from an accredited instructor;


• Supports parents and mentors with instructional material and practical guidance on how to provide effective supervision and training to a learner driver;


• Provides an interactive website offering short instructional videos, educational games and the location of their nearest accredited driving instructor; and


• Delivers the country's first ever national accreditation scheme for driving instructors.

The program is a practical way of equipping young people with the skills they need for a lifetime of safer driving.

A young person is at greater risk of being involved in a fatal car accident. Despite only making up 16 per cent of motorists, young people aged 17 to 25 account for nearly a quarter of road deaths.

We must and are doing more to prevent these tragedies.

keys2drive has been developed by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), the NRMA and other motoring clubs around Australia, with funding from the Federal Government and support from the driver training industry.

Already the program has been successfully introduced into Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, with more than 900 instructors nationwide now training to deliver it.

To find out more information about the program as well as to locate the nearest accredited instructor go to: www.keys2drive.com.au.