New Zealand Defence Force

11 March 2005

New Zealand Army Driver Training Review

Terms of Reference for the review of Army driver training will include legislative compliance, safety, and driver progression rates. The review will also compare the Army driver training programme to national and international driver training methods. The Chief of Army, Major General Jerry Mateparae, directed the review after the recent fatal Unimog accident near Cromwell.

Colonel Kevin Burnett, who commands the Army’s Training Group, is leading the review. He says, “We’ve taken a lot of time to develop the training regime that we currently have. We work hard to ensure that we meet all of our legislative requirements and we certainly wish to give the best possible training to our soldiers.

“However, we believe it is important to investigate whether there is any commonality between recent vehicle accidents and whether changes to our driver training regime need to be made to ensure it meets world-class standards”.

The Army-wide review, which began last week, is expected to take at least a month to complete.

ENDS

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