Year 10 students learnt about all aspects of road safety at the RYDA Road Safety Education Program.
As part of the PDHPE program, Year 10 students attended the RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) Road Safety Education Program last Tuesday, 20th August.
This program looks at road safety and advises young drivers how to drive safely on the roads. Year 10 student Chanel C. has written about this experience below:
During this program we embarked on a range of activities which not only educated us on road safety but also enlightened us on how we can all play our part and contribute to a safer society as adolescents.
We each attended six workshops - Road Choices, Drive SOS, The ‘I’ In Drive, Mind Matters, Crash Investigators and Speed and Stopping. Each workshop broadened our perspective on the extreme dangers of reckless driving, exposing us to the harsh realities faced by impacted individuals every day. We have been inspired to contribute to the ‘towards zero’ goal - that is, to have zero annual deaths caused by or occuring on the road network.
The ‘‘I’ In Drive’ workshop enabled us to become aware of our individual areas of improvement, such as getting angry easily, whilst simultaneously reflecting on how to eliminate our personal limitations. We now undoubtedly understand that by improving aspects of our own characteristics, such as anger issues, we will ultimately increase the safety of our roads for all users. One of the most valuable lessons that we learnt was that in order to make decisions with clarity and an informed conscience, we must not drive under pressure. It is crucial to be in the right headspace. This is where our personal limitations come into place - such as distractions from our phone for example, and not thinking before we act. This session exposed us to our personality types and how they can impact our driving.
Not only did the RYDA program inspire us to drive safely and educate us on the dangers of irrational thinking, it also gave us an insight into the impact that our decisions can have on other people. In one of our workshops, ‘Crash Investigators’, we were able to hear a mother’s experience of losing her daughter - a teenager with so much to live for. Losing her daughter was very tragic and now this mother uses her experience to inform people on how decisions can end in such tragedy. This story touched all our hearts.
Overall, this experience was highly beneficial to us and after many discussions we could all agree that we left it with information and road strategies that will remain with us for the rest of our lives and the 30 - 40 odd years that most of us will spend driving. On behalf of Year 10 I would like to thank the RYDA and PDHPE staff who made this engaging and interactive experience possible!
Chanel C.
Catherine McAuley Westmead
www.mcauleywestmead.catholic.edu.au
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