Roadcraft CEO calls for better licence system after Sharlene Urosevic’s death

Queensland’s driver licensing system is ‘flawed’ says one of the state’s leading driver education organisations, as a community reels from a road tragedy where an inexperienced teen was sentenced for causing a crash which claimed her friend.

Young Queensland drivers are being allowed behind the wheel on their own without proper training.

That’s the view of one of the state’s premier driver educators who has spoken out in the wake of a tragic Wide Bay case where an inexperienced teen driver on the Fraser Coast was charged after causing a crash which claimed the life of her friend, the day after she’d attended her high school formal.

In nearby Gympie, Sharlene Makin is CEO of Roadcraft, a world-class training centre, which, among other things offers defensive driving courses for high school students, something she believes should be compulsory.

She told the Gympie times teens often took a ‘blase’ approach to driving and “just don’t understand the dangers there can be”.

It comes after Sharlene Urosevic, an 18-year-old from Burrum River, died following a crash at Iveragh, near Gladstone, in November 2020.

Her friend Lucia Christina Ivy Fisher was sentenced in a Hervey Bay court this week after pleading guilty to careless operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

Sharlene Urosevic died following a crash at Iveragh, the day after she attended her high school formal.

The pair were headed to Airlie Beach with the court told Fisher, who held a provisional licence, tried to overtake another car but lost control and the subsequent crash was likely a result of her inexperience.

She was also driving an unfamiliar car, having borrowed her stepfather’s larger vehicle for the long trip.

The 19-year-old was fined $1200 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

As students across the Wide Bay prepare for Schoolies 2021, Ms Makin said she while she was unable to comment on the specifics of that tragedy, a recurring theme at Roadcraft was young drivers’ mistaken confidence not only in their own abilities but also in what their car could do.

She believed low requirements for training was behind the troubling trend.

“Why this is happening too often is a lack of effective education,” Ms Makin said.

“Our licensing system is flawed.

“(Teens who pass their test) think they have been given a big green tick and are right to go.

“Statistics say that’s the most dangerous time of their driving career.”

Ms Makin said young drivers were passing their tests, and then thinking they were right to go on the roads despite limited training.

One student recently completed the course at the behest of their mother because “it saved her life on more than one occasion”.

Ms Makin believes the focus shouldn’t be on appointing blame after tragedies happen but investing in stopping them in the first place.

“Unfortunately we’re the optional extra,” Ms Makin said.

“Very often one common thread (from students) is ‘this course should be compulsory’.”