General duties and Highway Patrol officers from Frankston will be keeping their eyes peeled for young drivers who they can reward for exhibiting good driver behaviour on the road.
As part of the Frankston Community Safety Network, local police are launching Drive Safe Frankston where they will be handing out vouchers that give the recipients access to practical driving skills.
Young drivers (18-25 year-olds), particularly men, are significantly over-represented in road trauma and are much more likely to engage in high-risk driving behaviour compared with other age groups.
As part of the new program, police will hand out vouchers to young drivers which will give them the opportunity to attend a customised, one of a kind dangerous driving course in an effort to build their skills and confidence.
The driving course will focus on improving skills such hazard recognition, vehicle positioning, steering and braking.
Franskton Local Area Commander Inspector Paul Cripps said the program was the result of local residents participating in a survey to gather insight and information about safety issues affecting the Frankston community.
“Dangerous driving has been identified as one of the key concerns for members of the Frankston community,” Insp Cripps said.
“Drive Safe is a great opportunity for local police to build positive relationships with young Frankston drivers, as well as start a conversation about the effects of dangerous driving.
“The number of lives lost so far this year is concerning and shows we cannot afford to be complacent about safety on our roads.
“Police are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the trauma on the roads at the moment through education, prevention and detection of dangerous driver behaviour.”
Community Safety Networks are partnership projects between the Victorian community, Victoria Police, Victorian Government, Crime Stoppers Victoria and Neighbourhood Watch.
They help support communities and police to increase their understanding of local crime issues and help inform local policing priorities.
The first six Community Safety Networks – Wyndham, Melton, Whittlesea, Cardinia, Latrobe and Ballarat – started last year. Another six Networks commenced this year in Brimbank, Dandenong, Frankston, Knox, Shepparton and Geelong.
To read more about the Community Safety Networks and community consultation results, visit the Engage Victoria website: www.engage.vic.gov.au/communitysafetynetworks.
