'I know she'd be proud': Jade's family backs Roadcraft

THE family of 17-year-old crash victim Jade Dixson has thrown their support behind Gympie's Roadcraft training model.

FROM LEFT: Jade Dixson's father Mark Dixson, best friend Raelle Avery, twin sister Georgia Dixson and mother Julie Dixson at Gympie's Roadcraft Driver Education Facility yesterday. Picture: Tom Daunt

THE family of 17-year-old crash victim Jade Dixson has thrown their support behind Gympie's Roadcraft training model as their campaign for mandatory defensive driver education continues.

Jade's father Mark, mother Julie, twin sister Georgia and best friend Raelle Avery visited Roadcraft yesterday to begin a two-day driver education course alongside students from Beerwah State High School.

Jade Dixson's family are not giving up on their quest to make defensive driver education mandatory for young drivers. The 17-year-old died in a car accident on March 27. Picture: Contributed/Facebook

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Jade died on March 27 after the car driven by her friend Adrian Fraser, also 17, crashed at Dulong Rd on the Sunshine Coast.

Her grieving family soon began their mission to honour her memory by laying the groundwork for Jade's Legacy, a charity aiming to raise awareness about the benefits of driver education for young people and campaign for change at federal and state parliament level.

Speaking at the facility, Mr Dixson said he was impressed by Roadcraft's emphasis on defensive driving.

REFORM ADVOCATE: Mark Dixson. Picture: Tom Daunt

"Roadcraft have a good model up here, and the thing that I've found with researching defensive driver training is there's so many different models and ... educators out there," he said.

"To me from what I've gathered, a lot of them are teaching the incorrect method of defensive driver education.

"I'm a builder by trade. I'm not the person to judge which is right or wrong, but I know for a fact defensive driver education for kids before they get their provisional licence will save lives.

"I think this is the model that should be pushed through.

"Hopefully, there's other organisations Australia-wide who have something very similar to this."

The Dixson family launch Jades Legacy after she died in a car crash. Picture: Warren Lynam

Driver educator Peter Hope said Roadcraft's programs brought about a "complete attitudinal change" in young drivers.

"If you're looking in the right place at the right time and using your eyes correctly, you can see the symptoms breaking out before it reaches that critical point where your human survival instincts almost ensure a crash is going to happen," Mr Hope said.

Mr Dixson said while the family still struggles to cope with losing Jade, their continued focus on furthering her legacy had helped.

"We're coping alright, we have our ups and downs, we still have a tear now and again, this a thing I've been focusing on so it's been helping me.

"It's tough, we're never going to get over it but we've just got to learn to live with it, but that's just part and parcel of it, we've been dealt the cards we've got to deal with.

"To me and the family and our supporters who have come on board, they're backing us 100% and they feel the exact same as we are, we need to save kids' lives."