KEY POINTS:
Police are using a crash which killed teenage sisters to highlight an initiative to educate secondary school students about the dangers of texting while driving.
The teaching aid, "A msg in Contxt", draws on the experiences of those affected by the deaths of sisters Lucy and Isabelle Simon, aged 18 and 15, in January last year.
Their car hit a truck and the probable cause of the crash was texting while driving, leading to an over-correction of steering.
The police youth education service programme uses a multi-media approach to highlight the risk factors and conditions that contribute to road crashes - particularly texting.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad, who is launching the initiative with Transport Minister Harry Duynhoven, said it had been trialled in a range of schools with good results.
"It is compelling; not only because it is so well considered, but also because it is a story that could be about many other families," Mr Broad said.
He paid tribute to Lucy and Isabelle's mother, Anne McCabe, who had been prepared to help the project out by sharing her grief .
The resource pack includes personal testimony from the girls' brother Jimmy, who was 12 at the time of the crash, and also the driver of the truck, who was unable to work for two months afterwards.
Meanwhile, research in Australia shows cellphones are becoming an increasing distraction for young drivers.
The research, by car insurer AAMI, showed 71 per cent of drivers aged under 25 had either sent or received a text while driving.
Other software on phones, such as MP3 music players, were also a growing concern, with 27 per cent of young drivers saying they spent time looking at the screen of their music player rather than the road.
That figure was up 7 per cent from last year.
- NZPA
