That’s why Orange and Cabonne Councils have begun to hold workshops for parents and supervising drivers to ensure driving mentors are teaching their students correctly.

The two-hour workshops help supervising drivers with practical advice about understanding new L and P-plate laws, supervising learner drivers, completing the Learner Driver Log Book and understanding the benefits of supervised on-road driving experiences.

“We teach a step-by-step approach to ensuring learner drivers are taught properly ...  as an example, something small like what order things should be taught in,” Orange and Cabonne road safety officer Andrea Hamilton-Vaughan said.

“We give little tips that people might not even think of. For something that’s free, I recommend any parent with a learner driver, or a soon-to-be learner driver, to come along. We always have parents telling us how beneficial the course is, and even if they only learn two or three things, it’s worth it.

“This is all about increasing the safety of our roads.”

Ms Hamilton-Vaughan said supervisors must stay up to date with new laws and the huge  advances in car technology to effectively teach learner drivers.

“A lot has changed since a lot of these supervisors learnt to drive,” she said.

“We see a lot of supervisors who struggle a bit. They tell their learner drivers what to do but not how to do it, or they have them doing too much too soon. Some supervisors will teach learners the wrong thing too early. Some don’t bother opening the log books at all in the first bits of teaching.

“We’ll be teaching them how to teach their learners essentially.”

The next workshop is scheduled for tomorrow at 6.30pm at the Orange Community Services and Information Centre.