BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia
Evidence based road safety education for young Australians
About BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia
BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia is a registered charity delivering evidence based road safety education to reduce preventable harm among young people before their highest risk years begin.
Road trauma remains one of the leading causes of death and serious injury for young Australians aged 16 to 25. The risk increases sharply when young people move from supervised learning to independent mobility.
BRAKE exists to reduce preventable harm by addressing known behavioural and developmental risk factors before young people enter their highest risk years.
What BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia does
BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia designs and delivers evidence based education initiatives that address known road safety risk factors for young people.
The organisation works through education settings to support safer thinking, attitudes and decision making before young people enter their highest risk years on the road.
BRAKE’s work focuses on prevention. Programs are designed to address behavioural, cognitive and social influences on risk, rather than relying on fear based messaging or one off interventions.
Who BRAKE exists to support
BRAKE focuses on young people during the critical years before and during their transition to independent mobility.
Evidence shows this period carries elevated risk due to inexperience, social influence and ongoing cognitive development affecting judgement and impulse control. Early intervention during this stage provides the greatest opportunity for prevention.
Primary audience
Young people aged 14 to 16, before the highest risk years begin.
Secondary audience
Families, schools and communities impacted by preventable road harm.
Prevention focus
Building safer decision making before independence
Why young people are at higher risk
Independent mobility is a complex skill that takes time to become automatic.
For young people, this learning period often coincides with factors that are consistently linked to elevated risk, including limited experience, heightened sensitivity to peer influence and ongoing development of judgement and self regulation.
This risk is compounded during the transition from supervised learning to independent decision making, when young people are exposed to complex environments without the same level of support.
Australian and international data consistently shows a sharp increase in serious crashes and fatalities during the early stages of independent road use. This pattern has remained largely unchanged over time.
Effective prevention therefore requires more than information alone.
How BRAKE works
BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia operates as a prevention-focused education organisation, applying evidence based principles across all of its programs and initiatives, Australia-wide.
Rather than focusing on rules, enforcement or fear based messaging, BRAKE addresses the behavioural, cognitive and social factors that influence decision making in real world situations.
Across its work, BRAKE applies a consistent prevention framework that emphasises:
- Early intervention before high-risk exposure
- Reinforced learning over time rather than one-off messaging
- Realistic situations young people recognise
- Decision making under pressure and social influence
- Responsibility to self and others as road users
This approach reflects established evidence from adolescent psychology, behavioural science and effective education practice.
BRAKE works within a Safe System approach to road safety, where education is recognised as one of several complementary pillars.
Alongside safer roads, safer vehicles, safe speeds and effective policy and enforcement, education plays a role in addressing behavioural and developmental risk factors before harm occurs.
BRAKE’s contribution sits within this broader system, supporting prevention rather than acting in isolation.
Evidence and evaluation
BRAKE is committed to evidence-informed design and continuous improvement across its education initiatives. Programs are supported by a structured evaluation framework that measures changes in attitudes and behavioural intentions.
Measures include attitudes to risk, perceived control, confidence to respond to pressure and behavioural intentions related to road use. These indicators are widely recognised in the research literature as meaningful precursors to safer decision making and reduced risk exposure.
Evaluation findings are used to refine program content, delivery and educator guidance over time. Evaluation is embedded into program delivery. All participants complete pre- and post-program assessment, allowing BRAKE to track changes consistently and transparently.
More than 70 data points are collected per participant, supporting accountability and responsible, evidence-based decision making.
Scale and reach
BRAKE delivers its education initiatives through existing education environments, including secondary schools.
Programs are implemented by regular educators within familiar learning settings, supporting consistency and accessibility.
This delivery model enables BRAKE to operate across metropolitan, regional and remote communities without reliance on external facilitators.
Alignment with curriculum priorities allows programs to scale while maintaining quality and relevance.
Students Reached
Secondary Schools
Teachers
Sergeant Robert Duncan and Belinda Duncan – the founders of BRAKE
Our story
BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia was established in Queensland in 2005 by police Sergeant Robert Duncan and Belinda Duncan.
The organisation was created in response to the preventable harm seen too often on Australian roads, particularly among young people. The original program was developed to support three high schools in the Scenic Rim region of south east Queensland.
Within two years, schools from across the state were requesting access to the program after hearing about it through other teachers. Demand extended as far north as the Cairns region, reflecting a clear need for a practical, evidence based approach that schools could deliver themselves.
This early growth shaped BRAKE’s direction. From the outset, the organisation focused on education that teachers who know their students best could deliver in regular classroom settings, using research informed content designed to support safer decision making before high risk exposure.
Governance
BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia is a registered Australian charity governed with a clear focus on prevention, public benefit and accountability.
The organisation is overseen to ensure transparency, responsible use of funding and consistency in program delivery. Governance structures support quality assurance, evaluation integrity and continuous improvement across all education initiatives.
BRAKE is supported by an experienced Board and advisors, ensuring alignment with the organisation’s charitable purpose and public benefit obligations.
Looking ahead
Road safety risks continue to evolve as young people move through changing transport environments, technologies and social contexts.
As a national youth road safety education program, BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia supports schools, families and communities through structured, evidence informed prevention delivered before independent driving begins.
The objective remains consistent.
To reduce preventable harm by supporting safer decision making before risk becomes reality.
How you can support prevention
Preventing harm on our roads requires collaboration across education, government, industry and the community.
If you would like to learn more about BRAKE Driver Awareness Australia, explore opportunities to support prevention or understand how our work aligns with your organisation’s priorities, we welcome a conversation.
