A Waikato University professor wants to keep young drivers safe by retraining the way their brains react to hazards.
Robert Isler will be conducting two weeks of research into young drivers' safety in Taupo next month.
The psychology lecturer said the brain's frontal lobe, which is responsible
for risk management, impulse control, hazard detection and peer pressure, doesn't fully mature until the age of 25.
He believes training teenagers in cognitive skills which develop the frontal lobe will mean fewer road crashes involving young people.
Dr Isler said current driving education programmes focused too much on driving skills and more emphasis needed to be put on higher level skills, such as hazard anticipation and risk management.
He hopes to prove that by training teenagers to assess risks and hazards they will be able to use their developing practical driving skills better.
Believed to be a world first, the study will be done at Wairakei in September and will involve 36 teenagers aged 16 and 17 learning a range of what Dr Isler hopes are life-saving skills.
The project will involve road tests, video and real life simulations, coaching, peer teaching and self evaluation.
The young drivers will then be followed up six, 12 and 18 months later to see if their new skills have resulted in fewer crashes.
Dr Isler said the current form of driver education wasn't working with teenagers 90 per cent more likely to crash as a solo driver than when they were supervised.
In 2004 drivers aged under 25 accounted for 30 per cent of fatal crashes.
"Frontal lobe training is vital if young people are to appropriately apply the practical skills they've learned," Dr Isler said.
"This study could revolutionise driver training, not just in New Zealand but internationally."
Teenagers wanting to take part in the test can email Dr Isler.
