Empowering The Next Generation Of Road Users

Next month, high school students from four Burdekin schools will attend a potentially lifesaving education program professionally developed and delivered by trained local mentors.

Road Safety Education Limited’s (RSE) RYDA workshop is a whole of school program which includes a full day workshop of practical, interactive and powerful sessions about road safety for students at Burdekin Catholic High School, Home Hill State High School, Burdekin Christian College and Burdekin Educational Engagement Program.

The program lays the foundation for safe road use throughout their lives and challenges students to think about the role they play road safety.

RSE CEO & Managing Director Terry Birss said the organisation applauds schools for committing to the educational experience for their students.

“Educating young people and equipping them with the tools they need to make good choices on the road is essential to saving lives,” he said.  

“It is not enough to teach a young person the skill of controlling and manoeuvring a vehicle.  

“We must balance this with the skill of critical thinking and an appreciation for safety on the road.”

The workshop is supported by a range of resources for students and teachers to use including an online digital revision course, pre-workshop classwork and follow-up modules on a range of road safety topics which schools can build into their curriculum.

To date, over 775,000 students have completed the RYDA program throughout Australia and New Zealand.  

The program focuses on teaching young drivers the cognitive skills required to manage distractions, an understanding and acceptance of the rules of the road and the laws of physics.

It helps students to plan their journey and gives them strategies to avoid risk and the resilience and motivation to implement those strategies.  

RYDA also teaches passengers how to contribute positively to the car’s environment and speak up if they’re uncomfortable and to use the road with social responsibility.

RYDA QLD Senior Program Coordinator Hannah Olsen said the support of local Rotary Clubs means the program can be run in all communities by local road safety and education professionals, including police.

“Youth Road Trauma is a community problem that needs a whole of community response,” she said.

“Our local rotary club and RSE are in a unique position to bring together all the essential elements to provide an effective and highly successful road safety education program for young people.”

Drivers are at their highest risk of being involved in a crash during their first year of driving unsupervised.

Young Australians continue to be over-represented in road trauma statistics with 17-25-year-olds making up 10% of the population but representing 22% of all driver and passenger fatalities.  

A range of factors have been linked to the higher rate of injuries and deaths caused by young drivers including driver inexperience, risky driving behaviours such as speeding, driving while fatigued, driving without a seatbelt and driving smaller and/or older vehicles with fewer safety features.  

The risk of crashing diminishes with experience plus the development of decision-making skills so they can recognise risky situations and make safer choices.  

The RYDA workshops teach all of these skills and are aimed specifically at people of senior high school age.

The program will run on Friday March 15 at the TAFE Queensland Burdekin Campus.

‍