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Sports clubs join drive to encourage learners to meet L120 challenge

By Latrobe City Council - 12th July 2005 - Back to News

Latrobe City and RoadSafe, together with four sports clubs in the municipality, have joined forces to help young learner drivers in the area to meet the L120 Challenge program. The program aims to encourage young drivers to accumulate at least 120 hours of driving experience before applying for their licences.

Latrobe City Mayor, Councillor Bruce Lougheed said that Council had invited all local football and netball clubs to register their learner drivers for the challenge.

"Over 70 young players from the Churchill, Moe, Newborough and Yinnar Football and Netball Clubs have since been issued with a log book to record their supervised driving time. The sports clubs play their part by encouraging their younger players to drive to and from games, gaining valuable experience along the way," Cr Lougheed said.

Cr Lougheed said each registered learner was eligible to receive prizes throughout the duration of the program, which concludes on 13 August.

"Spot-check days are being held throughout the program’s six week period. On these days volunteers at the sports clubs will be checking the log books, and awarding prizes such as Horizon Petroleum fuel vouchers, to those drivers who have racked up the most amount of hours for that week.

"At the end of the challenge the club with the most collective hours, and the male and female participants with the most recorded hours, will win a selection of prizes. All participating clubs have already received a Sherrin TAC L120 football and RoadSafe Netball for taking part. " Cr Lougheed explained.

Moe Football Club President, John McConachie said that the initiative was a great way for sports clubs to aid the development of local youth.

"Being involved in the L120 Challenge program is a great example of how sporting clubs can provide support to the community. As a caring community, we need to encourage and support parents and other adult role models to provide a recommended minimum 120 hours of supervised practical driving experience for learners in the municipality," Mr McConachie said.

Challenge Co-ordinator, Elizabeth Tomlins said that that the L120 Challenge was being conducted as part of the REAP (RoadSafety Education Awareness Partnership) initiative and was one of many ways in which Latrobe City and RoadSafe were aiming to make the roads a safer place for our young drivers.

"Under the REAP banner we have held a Youth Forum to encourage young people to think about road safety issues and we have held a forum for teachers and educators to encourage road safety to be included in the school curriculum," Ms Tomlins said.

Ms Tomlins added that by ensuring learner drivers had at least 120 hours of driving experience in varied conditions, the reduction in crash risk was significant.

"The risk of a crash is reduced by up to 30%, once these learners have received their licences, when compared to learner drivers who have accumulated less than 50 hours driving experience. It really does pay to meet the challenge," Ms Tomlins concluded.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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