Protect your P-plater

It’s your job to keep them safe……when they’re this little… …and when they’re this little.

And even when they’re not so little any more,… it’s still your job to keep them safe.

As a new P-plater the risk of a serious crash is six times higher than when they were learning to drive. So stay involved and protect your P-plater. To find out how, search Join the Drive.

Authorised by the Queensland Government, William Street, Brisbane

Sofie: So the statistic tells us that when learners go from their Ls to their red Ps, they’re six times more likely to be involved in a serious crash.

Person 1: Despite having 100 hours, they’re still very inexperienced and prone to speeding.

Person 2: They just don’t have the experience that they think they have a lot of the time.

Person 3: They’ve done the test, they’ve got all the technical and practical but you can’t put an old head on young shoulders and there’s a lot going on on the road.

Host: Has it made you all better drivers, teaching your children to drive?

All Yes, definitely!

Host: How do you continue to encourage them to be really great drivers once they’re out on their own?

Person 4: My husband and I encourage her and when we’re in the car with her, we’ll always comment, “Kushbu, you’re a really good driver now,” so just encouragement.

Person 5: Giving themselves plenty of time, like I think when the kids are rushing to get somewhere or also if they are not sure where they’re going and they’ve got to try and navigate to a certain point. So I always you know, sort of like say, “Do you know where you’re going mate?” and “Give yourself plenty of time,” that sort of thing.

Person 6: Trying not to tell him too much because I know he doesn’t like to be told. So usually I do tell him just to be a nice person and just drive with good manners.

Person 7: I think the best way is to actually go out driving with them. Because then, they’re in control, they’re driving the car and that way you can check what they’re doing without them knowing it. Be the cool mum that just sort of sits there and you know, goes out with them and you can just hand out little helpful hints like, ‘He’s going a bit fast’ or you know, something along those lines to be encouraging, ’Oh that was really good. You did great there’. Or something like that. If you’re not driving with them, you don’t have that advantage. And you know, what better way to spend time with your kids?

Host: So Jen, Harry’s on his red Ps, was it a case of here are the keys, off you go?

Jen: I’m not quite sure about that. We were really excited when he got his licence and certainly excited for him that he was gaining a little bit more independence as he’s getting older. But, yeah there were a few nerves, I guess, you know you sort of nurture them through this period where they’re practising and you’re with them and you’re giving them lots of advice and stuff but yeah once they get their keys and they go you just have to hope they remember what they’ve been taught and you know, keep learning, I guess. Harry’s a big help to us in the family we’ve got three children so I’ll often get Harry to help out with picking up and dropping off his sisters.

Harry: I get a little nervous driving them around because I mean, they mean a fair bit to me, and mum and dad, as well. So you’ve got to look after them, you’ve got to be safe and the awareness levels to spike a bit when you have other people in the car with you.

Jen: We often talk about leaving plenty of time to get places and that sort of thing. Knowing where you’re going in terms of not being too distracted with trying to find places and things like that so it’s those sort of little tips I think that, you know, you can’t help but want to keep giving your kids a bit of advice along the way.

Sofie: Statistically, we know that drivers that go from that L to their red P stage are six times more likely to be involved in a serious crash, which is rather sobering and Jen, as a parent, I think it helps us to understand why it’s so important that we remain involved in our young driver.

Jen: I mean, that statistic is frightening and I think as parents most of us know that, you know, we’re putting a lot of trust in our kids and we hope that all the guidance we’ve given them through their learners is going to hold them in good stead. But the kids need to be aware of that statistic and need to know and understand that they’re in a really high risk group. We’ve spoken to Harry about it, about the risk to young, especially young males. Just after they get their licence that they are high risk. I didn’t realise it was quite that high but yeah, it’s about, I guess, keeping the communication open.

Harry: It is a pretty worrying statistic and I can understand how it is because I know I’ve, there’s been close calls and that is really due to inexperience.

Jen: I don’t think the parenting ever stops when they’re first starting to get out on their own driving. We occasionally drive together and it’s good to see how he’s going and we’re really happy with his progress so far but he’s still learning. We’re well aware of the risks at this age and keep gaining experience and be safe on the road.

Host: Well, I guess the first thing is congratulations, everybody here is the P-plater.

Person 1: Yeah, I passed the first time. I was pretty nervous, but yeah, passing was definitely the best feeling ever.

Person 2: I love driving so much. Every time someone is like, “Oh, can someone drive?” “Me! I will do it”.

Person 3: Well, it’s a huge relief for me and my parents because I live half an hour away from school, so every morning they’d be driving me back and forth and I mean that saves a lot of the time for them, so I mean, it changed their lives and it’s changed mine.

Host: Did you actually know statistically you’re a better driver with mum or dad in the car?

All people: Yes. (I believe that) (Say it all together)

Person 4: If it wasn’t my dad teaching me all the stuff like, who to give way and what, and how many metres between each car, I think I definitely would have been in an accident already.

Person 5: They’re always like, you know good job and that, and then they’re like, maybe take that a bit slower.

Person 6: My parents are like, very neurotic about my driving, so any…

Host: But why is that? Because they…

Person 6: Love me.

Host: They want you to get from A to B in one piece, right?

Person 7: Just because we don’t have that L-plate and we have a P-plate doesn’t mean like, we’re still learning. Every time you get in the car is a learning experience cause you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

Host: But statistically you’re actually six times more likely to be involved in a serious crash in that period of going from being a learner driver to putting that red P on the car and having all of that freedom and independence.

Person 7: Well, I found the first drive after I got my Ps was pretty eye-opening. After spending all that time with your parents, it is like that an extra support behind you and then you go the road and you’re by yourself and it’s a big responsibility making sure that you keep yourself safe and you keep, as much as you can, others safe around you.

Person 8: Oh, yeah. I think you don’t realise how much that the second set of eyes is really doing for you in your first hundred hours and then you get out there all on your own. And I realised that I actually have to check on the high speed merge if someone is coming, not mum, but yeah.

Person 9: I enjoy having mum and dad in the car more now I’m on my Ps than when I was on my Ls, because they respect that I’ve got this far, they have just taken the backseat, noticing little things we can work on.

Host: Has it become more like a conversation rather than instruction?

Person 9: Yeah, it’s a lot easier to talk to them about it.

Person 10: Yeah, they respect your driving a lot more, cause they can appreciate that you’ve done your hundred hours. You have passed the test so you are legally competent to drive on your own.

Person 11: But having them in the car with me, it’s really taught me like, just to keep on learning and just keep…I don’t know… just to stay safe.

Person 12: Well, I can just appreciate now that they are just trying to help.

Person 13: They’ve been driving for a lot longer than you have and you know, they know the right and wrong thing to do and even though you think that you are invincible and you can be that confident, but realistically you can learn from them.

Host: Holly, who did you enjoy driving with most? Is that a loaded question?

Holly: Ah, no mum definitely, I’ll tell Dad that any day

Host: But obviously you’ve drawn the best out of both of them

Host: Because you survived the 100 hours and you got your licence the first go

Holly: Yeah

Holly: You just get filled with this massive boost of confidence when you pass you test especially for me because I went in very…

Host: Yeah, well mum said you were going to fail

Mum: I nearly fainted when she came home and said “I’ve got my P’s”

Dad: Well she’s the first one because both you and I failed once, and both the older kids failed once so it was kind of in our DNA

Mum: Even us, we failed our first driving test, so she broke the family curse

Holly: So I just went, “Oh I can drive, I’m a good driver” so then I think my first week of driving on P’s was probably the worst I’d ever driven, but I’m not there now so I can say that.

Host: It’s difficult to watch them drive off into the sunset as it is, but even more so when we hear that our L-Platers, when they move into that red P zone are six times more likely to be involved in a crash.

Dad: Yeah I wasn’t aware that it was six times as that’s a hard statistic now to quote back to Holly now, to say that you know you are six times more likely to have a prang.

Mum: Whenever you’re going across the city, to a new place, a party or something especially if you’ve got passengers that are your friends, that’s nerve wracking. You can’t help but say “you do not want to hurt your friends so” you just say it really positively, you’re a good driver, you’re going to go somewhere you don’t know, you’re going to have to not talk.

Holly: Mum makes the same joke every time I leave the house with a friend “Precious cargo Holly, don’t have a crash”. Well I still drive with Mum and Dad a lot because every time I drive, every time we’re all getting in the car they’ll want me to drive a lot of the time, like I drove here just so they can I guess keep an eye on how I’m going.

Mum: Yeah so we can say nothing and just watch you manage all that, yeah.

Holly: I think when I sort of realised when they were pretty confidence with my driving is when they’re just asking me to drive my little sister places or when they were just asking me to do lifts here and there.

Mum: And she would come back and tell on you kids when you weren’t driving properly, she would report it so she came and said “Mum you don’t need to worry Holly’s a really good driver”.