The Victorian rollout of keys2drive – an innovative driver education program which will provide up to 50,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parents – has begun.

Today I marked this milestone by meeting with a number of the instructors that have been accredited to deliver the free lessons.

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 than drivers from any other age group, with nearly a third of people killed on Australian roads aged 16 to 25.

In fact, young people go from being one of the safest drivers when on their L’s to being the most likely to have a crash the moment they get their P plates.

We must and are doing more to prevent these tragedies.

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

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