Almost 3,000 newly arrived migrants and disadvantaged young Victorians will receive free road safety education and professional driving lessons to ensure they’re confident and safe on our roads.

Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll said the Andrews Labor Government programs will ensure almost 600 new Victorians can take part in road safety programs across the state – delivering more than 1,000 driving lessons.

The program supports recently arrived migrants and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds aged over 21 years to increase their road safety knowledge, awareness, and skills as part of the $1.5 million Community Road Safety Grants Program.

Participants receive five core education sessions which address road rules, driver behaviour, pedestrian, and cyclist safety, as well as up to two paid professional driving lessons for participants who hold a licence.

On top of this, as part of the TAC L2P Program, Learner drivers who are unable to access a supervising driver or vehicle to accrue their minimum 120 hours of driver training will receive up to seven free professional driving lessons – in addition to a mentor and access to a vehicle.

This is expected to provide free, supervised driving experience to more than 2,249 participants and up to 16,017 professional driving lessons this year alone.

Since 2008, the L2P program has helped 15,000 young learner drivers, clocking up 656,757 hours and supporting more than 7,000 participants to get their P-Plates since 2008.

This all supports the Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, which aims to halve road deaths and reduce serious injuries by 2030 and eliminate road deaths by 2050.

For more information on Community Road Safety Grants and L2P, please visit vicroads.vic.gov.au.