Road safety charity, The Honest Truth has launched a new project aimed at providing driving instructors with additional training to help them teach learner drivers more about the importance of road safety.

The countrywide project will see driving instructors offered training to enhance their work with learner drivers so as to identify and counteract bad habits such as speeding, using a mobile phone while driving, getting behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol or drugs and showing off to friends, before those they teach take to the roads alone.

The Honest Truth is a charity set up in south Devon in 2009 after three young people were killed in a road traffic accident. It already works with 1,500 driving instructors across the UK and its aim is to stamp out bad driving habits and alert new and young drivers to the risks of getting behind the wheel.

According to statistics from another road safety charity, Brake, a young person is hurt every 10 minutes on UK roads, every 30 minutes one is seriously injured and every 18 hours a young person is killed in a road traffic accident.

Laura Harper, a serious injury solicitor based in Thompsons Solicitors’ Birmingham office, said: “Learning to drive is a rite of passage that almost every young person goes through, but ensuring they are educated to the dangers associated with getting behind the wheel is vital.

“Family and friends can play their part by talking about road safety but driving instructors spend a great deal of time with the learner so it makes sense for them to take on some of the responsibility too. Providing instructors with additional training to enable them to give comprehensive advice on road safety could make a real difference to ensuring learner drivers are fully aware of the risks before they get behind the wheel on their own.”