Toyota drives youth road safety education
Mar 28, 2013 By Toyota Australia.
Toyota Australia is strengthening its commitment to road safety by partnering with a national not-for-profit organisation to deliver vital road safety information to high school students.
With ongoing support from Toyota, Road Safety Education Limited (RSE) offers high schools a one day program to provide senior students with practical information on safe driving practices and how to avoid or minimise the impact of common crashes and high risk situations.
This program is called RYDA and is aimed at 17 and 18 year olds throughout the country.
As this age group is more likely to be on the road during busy periods, particularly the upcoming school holidays, it is programs like this that ensures the country's most vulnerable drivers are well informed before getting behind the wheel.
Toyota Australia's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Buttner said it was vital that young people were equipped with as much road safety information as possible before obtaining their probationary licence.
'Toyota is a strong advocate of responsible driving,' Mr Buttner said.
'While we will always look at new ways to increase the safety features offered in our vehicles, we also understand and support the need to provide young drivers with additional road safety information.
'Statistics show that young people are overrepresented in crash data, which is something we want to change. By partnering with RSE we can make sure more high school students are exposed to RYDA so that they can make informed decisions when getting behind the wheel.'
Mr Buttner said Toyota Australia would support RSE to expand the RYDA program and raise awareness of it amongst key stakeholders, including teachers and parents.
RSE's Director of Program Development Greg Rappo said he was committed to increasing the level of school participation in the driver education program.
'Last year our RYDA program reached more than 45,000 high school students around Australia, which is an increase on previous years,' Mr Rappo said.
'With the help of organisations such as Toyota Australia, we can increase school participation and broaden our program so that we can continue to play a vital role in youth road safety education.
'Feedback from participants reveals they are less likely to drive five kilometres per hour above the speed limit, have a better understanding of how to avoid a car crash and are more likely to turn off or switch their mobile phones on silent before driving after attending the program.'
RSE has been running the RYDA program for senior high school students for 12 years. It began in New South Wales and has since expanded nationally and into New Zealand, with more than 250,000 students having now attended the program.
The RYDA program is run by well-trained facilitators with experience in road safety education. It includes six interactive sessions delivered to small student groups and has a guest presentation from a car crash survivor who speaks about the impact of their crash on family and friends.