Driver safety call falls on deaf ears at most schools

The Ministry of Education and school principals have steered away from a call for driving safety to be made part of the education curriculum for teenagers.

The Automobile Association (AA) has accused schools of ignoring the "life-and-death" issue, saying road trauma was the leading cause of death and injury for young New Zealanders aged 15 to 19.

The latest edition of the quarterly publication AA Advocate said each year 70 teenagers died and 2500 were injured. Yet the Ministry of Education's health and physical education curriculum for years 10 to 13 made no reference to teaching safety in and around vehicles, it said.

Steve Benson, the ministry's senior manager learning policy, said schools covered safety issues in the health and physical education curriculum from new entrants to school leavers. "And road safety is there all the way though."

Mr Benson said the curriculum was under review but there were no plans to introduce driver education as a formal part of the school curriculum. "That's a decision for schools to take and some do it."

He said the message the ministry got from schools was that the compulsory curriculum was full, and they wanted a focus on essentials.

Tina Sheehan, whose 16-year-old son Shane survived a high-speed smash in Pukekohe at Easter, said she thought driver safety should be offered at all schools. "I don't think it should be a compulsory subject, as not all students drive."

Ms Sheehan's son was the sole survivor of the crash in which four of his friends died after their vehicle failed to take a bend on State Highway 22. The driver was holding a cellphone and a cigarette moments before the crash, and the Honda Integra was travelling 170km/h.

Graham Young, president of the Secondary Schools Principals Association, agreed that driving safety should not be a ministerial directive.

"It is important schools not be captured by interest groups," he said.

But Mr Young said schools could choose to add it to their curriculum according to their community preferences.

The AA Advocate argued it was time the ministry took up the responsibility for teaching safe driving by developing resources and curricula, and by being represented on the National Road Safety Committee alongside transport agencies and the police.

Driving safety was not a matter of teaching young people to physically drive a car but how to manage the safe use of one. Almost all teenagers who died on this country's roads were male.