Driving mentors – putting safer drivers on our roads

Denys Latham knows a thing or two about driving – hardly surprising with 15 years under his belt as a community driver mentor on the Drive 4 Life programme at Partners Porirua.

He’s helped dozens of Porirua young people get their licences and he’s still loving doing his bit to ensure safer drivers are hitting the roads.

“We’re helping to put better qualified drivers on the road from a young age. When we’re mentoring, we’re coaching and supervising a range of priority driving experiences. You develop a rapport insisting on good practices and good habits – things that will last a lifetime.

Denys says this is a vast improvement to days of old. “Back in the day you got your licence in five minutes. Nowadays, from their first learner licence into their restricted, these young people are taught and given best practice, they learn about checking their mirrors, looking for hazards, shoulder checking, parallel parking, what to do at roundabouts etc. Hopefully they turn into good drivers.”

Denys got involved as a mentor when he was a Porirua City Councillor and the idea of introducing a driving programme for young people was first mooted. “We were told that road crashes were the leading cause of death for 16–24-year-olds and I thought heck, I need to be a part of changing that.”

He now works predominantly with Year 13 Porirua College students two hours a week. That’s two students a week, with each lesson about 45-50mins long.

Denys says he gets asked two main questions by other would-be mentors; do you need to use your own car, and do you feel on edge? The answer is no to both.

“The car is supplied by Partners Porirua; they use automatic hybrids so there’s no issues there and the kids are quality kids – they’re keen and they’re already at a certain level –there’s no danger attached to it.”

He says the young people already have a fair degree of competence before they come to him thanks to the Partners Porirua team.

Partners Porirua also provides assistance and check lists to help mentors. But, according to Denys, some of the qualities needed to be a good mentor can’t be found on a check list.

“I think you need to have empathy with young people, not be too dictatorial and you have to know good driving practice – something Partners Porirua helps you with.

“You develop a rapport, and your driving students talk to you about other things as well. You don’t solve their problems but sometimes they might want to discuss things – they see you as a confidant – there is a great deal of satisfaction in it.”

Denys encourages anyone with time to offer to consider signing up as a mentor. “Every hour you can give is an hour’s learning to drive for a young person, not to mention polishing up your own driving skills.

“It’s made me a much better driver. I didn’t know a lot of things – for example signalling to exit a roundabout and turning where there’s a gap in the solid white line in the centre of the road. These are all the things you do on autopilot but they’re not necessarily right, going through the checklists and teaching young people commits all of this to memory!”

You can read more about the Drive 4 Life programme here.