Driving school on runway

By ALASTAIR SLOANE motoring editor

Plans for the most comprehensive driver training centre in New Zealand include a four-lane highway, 2km of two-lane roads, a skidpan, motorcycle circuit and a two-storey administration building with classrooms.

"The very first person who drives out of the gate after completing our course will be the new-generation New Zealand driver," said the centre's executive officer, Auckland driving instructor Wayne Price.

The new facility, a non-profit organisation, is at Ardmore Airport, on about 16ha of bare land bordering Airfield Rd. Price leased the land from the Ardmore Airport Authority.

It contains part of a runway which Price has been using for driver training. Another old runway nearby will eventually become a stretch of four-lane "practice" highway.

The development plans for the project are with the Papakura District Council. All Price needs now is funding and support.

"We want organisations to use the centre. We want individual driving instructors who want a couple of hours with their pupils to use it," he said.

"There will be a charge of course because I want it to be stand-alone. At the end of the year if there's money in the pot it will go back into driver education."

The centre is called the AlphaOneFive Road and Traffic Education Centre. Alpha-OneFive is the name of Price's driving school.

"The Alpha part means first and the OneFive means 15, the driving age in New Zealand," said Price.

Price has been pushing for such a training facility since he came from Britain as an ex-army driving instructor to work with the Automobile Association in 1994. "I saw a need for higher driving skills in New Zealand then, because I was shocked at the carnage and the unwillingness of the Government to save on the social costs of accidents," he said.

He wrote letters to politicians urging them to back state-owned driving centres.

"But while they all agreed that driving skills are important, they didn't see a need for government to get involved in the driver-education business," he said.

So Price went it alone. He lobbied businesses and local bodies. He set up his own advanced driving school, mostly training company and corporate drivers. He worked with big fleet companies to help them to reduce accident rates and costs by more than 90 per cent.

He got involved with Holden, which is supplying AlphaOneFive with vehicles. Hire car company Avis liked what he did. So did consumer company Johnson and Johnson Pacific.

So, too, did New Zealand racing driver Greg Murphy, who has been helping Price with driver training for the past couple of years. Murphy will continue to help out at the Ardmore centre.

Price and his instructors want families especially to make use of Ardmore.

"I want them here to enjoy themselves - bring a picnic, even - while learning the benefits of self-discipline at the wheel.

"I want to train the parents of young drivers to become good observers, to be able to sit and discuss the mistakes their son or daughter might make without bellowing at them.

"I want to bring the European standard of instruction to New Zealand. Why is the road toll in Britain, Sweden and Germany the lowest in the world? Because driver training is the best.

"Driver deaths on New Zealand roads is going up, despite the overall road toll going down.

"In 1998, 50 per cent of the people who died in road accidents were the drivers. Last year it was 54 per cent."