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Young Drivers Rewarded In L120 Challenge

Learner drivers from Yinnar Football Netball Club scored a valuable victory recently, winning the Latrobe City and RoadSafe L120 Challenge by notching up over 172 hours of supervised driving time.

By Latrobe City Council - 14th November 2005 - Back to News

Latrobe City’s Challenge Co-ordinator, Elizabeth Tomlins said that under the L120 Challenge, all learner drivers were required to accumulate at least 120 hours behind the wheel before applying for their probationary licence.

"Latrobe City invited sport clubs in the municipality to sign up and encourage their younger players to drive to and from games, gaining valuable experience along the way. The clubs involved gained over 70 participants.

"The winning club Yinnar Football Netball Club logged a combined 172.30 hours and runners up Newborough Football Netball Club were extremely close with 170 hours of driving time. The event proved to be a great success," Ms Tomlins explained.

Yinnar Football Netball Club President, Russell Cheffers said that the challenge was a great way for the club to aid the development of our youth.

"Being involved in the L120 Challenge program is a great example of how sporting clubs can provide support to their local community," Mr Cheffers said.

Whilst Yinnar won the combined effort, there were also rewards for the most individual hours logged and both of these were won by Newborough players - David Sinclair (football) and Jess Ryan (netball).

Newborough Football Netball Club President, Alan Davies, acknowledged the importance of getting plenty of driving practice whilst on L plates.

"As a caring community we need to encourage and support supervised practical driving experience. The L120 Challenge ensured that our young drivers accumulated many valuable hours on the roads whilst driving to and from games," Mr Davies said.

Ms Tomlins added that the winning club received two Sherrin L120 footballs and two L120 netballs.

"Individual winners were presented with showbags containing Country Roads/Melways street directory, fuel vouchers from Horizon Petroleum, RoadSafe pens and other items from TAC and VicRoads. All clubs received a framed Certificate of Participation and the participant with the top KLM’s from each club also received a RoadSafe show bag.

Ms Tomlins said that the L120 Challenge was just one of the ways in to make the roads a safer place for our young drivers.

"By ensuring that our learner drivers have at least 120 hours of driving experience in varied conditions, we can reduce crash risk, once licensed, by up to 30% when compared to those learner drivers who have less than 50 hours experience," Ms Tomlins concluded.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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