Skoda teams up with Murph and Street Smart

Wednesday, 14 April 2021

Following on from taking over as the supplier of patrol cars to the Police from Holden, Skoda New Zealand has once again stepped into a void left by the Australian company following its demise, and this time it is in an arguably even more important role.

Following a one-two punch of the Covid-19 pandemic and the departure of Holden, learner driver training programme Street Smart was left hanging by a thread, but the passion of those involved in it kept it going and now Skoda New Zealand has come on board as sponsorship partner, helping to secure the programme’s future.

Skoda’s partnership with Street Smart will see the company supply not only financial support, but also vehicles for some of the exercises to allow young drivers to experience the latest safety and technology available in newer cars (participants do the majority of the course in their own cars).

Launched 2018, Street Smart was originally a collaboration between Holden New Zealand, road safety researcher Peter Sheppard, and motor racing star Greg Murphy, who is a passionate road safety advocate.

**READ MORE:

* Road toll: 'Words are not fixing the problem we need actions' - Greg Murphy

* Murph honoured with safety award

* Holden out, Skoda in for Corporate Cabs

* Holden NZ launches young-driver training programme

**

Targeted at young drivers ideally (but not exclusively) at the end of their period on a learner's licence, before they move to a restricted, Street Smart teaches basic skills during a “hands-on” practical one-day event which provides the young drivers and their parents/caregivers the opportunity to learn under supervised conditions, with a focus on developing good decision-making and skills vital for safe driving, including self-assessment, how to read the road environment, resisting peer pressure, managing or eliminating distractions, and planning ahead.

“We saw a massive hole overall in our young driver training in that hands-on practical learning wasn’t covered in the current licensing system,” said Hayden Dickason, Street Smart programme director.

“Hands-on, cognitive ‘learning by doing’ is one of the crucial things we picked up from world-wide research as being best-practice in those countries that are recognised as being the best in young driver learning.”

As an example, Dickason cited Sweden, where hands-on professional driver training is part of the licensing system, and it has about three road deaths for every 100,000 head of population.

“Over here we are close to seven. So it was really important to us to take some of those learnings and bring them to New Zealand,” he said.

“I say to our participants that when they are playing rugby or netball at school, the coach doesn't sit them in a room in front of a screen and talk to them all day – they want them out on the field actually doing and learning. That’s how you get better, that’s how you learn, that’s how the brain develops when you are in your younger years.”

But that hands-on approach is expensive, with Street Smart needing to use motorsport facilities throughout the country to ensure a controlled environment, so funding is essential in order to keep the course accessible to as many young drivers as possible, and while local councils around the country have been very supportive, getting the government interested has been a harder task.

Fortunately, Skoda New Zealand’s support came at the right time for the struggling charitable trust, something that Street Smart ambassador and New Zealand motor racing legend Greg Murphy is very happy about.

“I’m very proud this is happening and that we can work together to fix what I believe is a sizeable problem we have when it comes to road safety in New Zealand,” he said.

Murphy, an outspoken critic of New Zealand’s road toll, has long campaigned to improve young driver training in New Zealand and has been deeply involved in Street Smart from the very beginning.

“Our road crash statistics in New Zealand are disgusting,” he said. “It’s something that we have looked and talked about over many, many years and effectively, as a country, we have done very little to improve the situation.

“Last year, even with Covid, we still had a road toll that we should be ashamed of. It was disturbing to still see people being killed on our roads during four weeks of complete lockdown, and I believe that says it all. There’s a lot of work to do, and our youth are obviously very important.

When young people are learning to drive, they are at the most risk of being involved in a car crash, says Murphy, and in 2020 – even with Covid – there was a 15 per cent increase in both the crash statistics and the road toll for the 16 to 24 year old age range.

Murphy says that Street Smart was conceived to “give them the real basic skills to make a difference”, something the government is failing at with the current driver licensing system.

“We haven’t changed anything in New Zealand when it comes to licensing basically since 1987 when the graduated licensing system was introduced,” said Murphy.

“The only major thing that has happened since then was an increase in the age of getting your driving licence from 15 to 16, but the processes to get licence essentially the same, with no specific closed circuit, professional training required to get a licence.

“Through the last few years we’ve struggled along as a charitable trust to get some third party funding to allow us to really push Street Smart and get it out in the marketplace and also get it recognised by the powers that be – the NZTA, ACC, the government – to get them to support us in what we are doing.

“Our goal is to, hopefully one day, have it fully funded, or have it as a compulsory part of getting your driver’s licence. We know the benefits of this are enormous, and they are life-changing and life-saving.”

Street Smart’s first events for 2021 are being held at motorsport parks around the country during the April school holidays. You can check out dates for a course near you at the Street Smart website.