Even with more funding and perfect roads, teen drivers have been warned to take care. In fact some students have been scared straight in the latest driver education courses.

Aleisha McLaren reports.

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Four-point-six seconds of distraction is all it takes.

Year 11 students today learning about the extreme consequences of driving without two eyes on the road, and two hands on the steering wheel.

Amity Dilger, Rivermount College: “It was really confronting. We learnt so much about what people get in the habit of doing, and it’s so scary.”

Jerika Beardsworth, Rivermount College: “Normally I have my phone in my pocket when I’m driving, but now I’m going to be like, putting it in the back of my car!”

It’s all part of Queensland Police’s 2-N-2 Initiative helping students learn to be safer drivers.

Senior Constable Tony Fishburn, Qld Police: “They’ll use my phone to send a text message, and you’ll just see the reaction of what the car does. The other students watching on will see that the car will leave the road, they’ll crash into other cars and that sort of thing.”

Queensland Police urge young people to remember the fatal five behaviours which lead to serious injury and death on the road: drink driving, fatigue, driving without a seatbelt, speeding and driving with distractions.

Year 11 students and their families are encouraged to come up with strategies, so they don’t become a statistic.

Craig Brown, Rosemount College Dean: “This stuff, or these accidents could happen to them. That five seconds could change your life and can change the life of your family.”

2-N-2 will be rolled out statewide in the next 12 months.

Aleisha McLaren, QUT News.