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It's Road Safety Week with the Theme - Drive So Others Survive

National Road Safety Week Australia

This week is a great time for all Australians to reflect on what they can do to support our young drivers as they are the next generation of drivers on our roads.

National Road Safety Week will be held right around Australia this week with the heartfelt theme – ‘Drive So Others Survive.’

We believe the RYDA program is contributing to saving young people’s lives on the roads. We applaud schools for committing to this educational experience for their students.”
— Road Safety Education Limited's CEO & Managing Director, Terry Birss.
SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA, May 15, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- National Road Safety Week is a great time for all Australians to reflect on what they can do to support young drivers as they're the next generation of drivers on the road. If all Australians could make a pledge to be more patient and supportive of younger people as they learn to drive this year, this would be a great way to ‘Drive So Others Survive.’

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. While this statistic is a lot better than 10 years ago, this still means that 230 young people died on Australian roads last year and approximately 10 times that number were seriously injured (see stats from Government website here).

Road Safety Education Limited’s (RSE) RYDA program works to give young people the tools they need to make safe choices but a recent survey of their students highlighted that other drivers often make that challenging. 87% of students reported that while displaying their L plates they have experienced negative behaviour from drivers including tailgating (70%), aggressive overtaking (66%), road rage (29%), honking horns (46%) and flashing lights (26%). One student even reported that another driver got out of their car and pointed aggressively at them.

National Road Safety Week is supported by governments, individuals, charities and businesses across Australia and New Zealand including RSE and the RYDA program. Road trauma is one of the biggest causes of death for Australians aged under 25. The statistics show however, that this number, while still too high, is moving in the right direction. In the ten years leading up to the first RYDA program in 2001, an average of 527 young people aged 17-25 were dying on Australian roads every year. In the 10 years leading to 2022, that number has fallen by 56%.

While the statistic has reduced, until the number of young lives lost on Australian roads becomes zero, more needs to be done as each year a new cohort of young people start to drive. Initiatives such as best practice road safety education, better roads, safer vehicles, better enforcement and graduated licensing schemes are all helping to keep these numbers falling.

As a founding Principal Partner of National Road Safety Week, RSE works with governments, corporate partners and communities to help reduce youth road trauma. RSE holds RYDA workshops with high schools and is a professionally-developed education program about road safety for young
drivers and passengers.

To date, more than 735,000 students have completed the RYDA program in high schools throughout Australia and New Zealand. This is all made possible with support from RSE’s corporate partners including BOC, Toyota Australia, Bridgestone and Boral Limited, as well as support from our community partner, Rotary. RSE also receives greatly valued funding from various Government bodies to help towards delivery costs and keeping the program affordable for schools.

As Terry Birss, RSE’s CEO & Managing Director says: “Educating young people and equipping them with the tools they need to make good choices on the road is essential to saving lives,” adds Mr Birss. “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. It would be greatly appreciated if the experienced drivers in Australia could embrace the National Road Safety Week theme of Drive So Others Survive by endeavouring to be more patient and supportive of our young drivers,’” Mr Birss says.

Here are some comments about the RYDA program:
"This road safety excursion was by far one of the best excursions I have ever been to. I have learned so much and found today so interesting that I couldn’t wait to tell my family all that I learned."

"After my son came along to RYDA he started to drive with more respect for my car, his life, the safety of his passengers and the road. I really felt that his attitude as a driver AND as a passenger had changed. I thank you and your team for what you offer these students."

Pamela Connellan
Road Safety Education Limited
+61 409 307 327
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