Statistics show that road crashes are one of the major causes of death and serious injury for 16-24 years olds in South Australia. This term Year 11 students were visited guest from the Road Awareness Program (RAP).

The students were presented with an interactive PowerPoint presentation incorporating some photographic and video content showing graphic footage of real crashes and some crash recreations.

During the presentation, firefighters shared their personal experiences, with a focus on ways in which people are affected by road trauma and how a young person's life may change following a motor vehicle crash. The highlight of the program was the guest speaker: a real life crash survivor who spoke to the students about their ordeal. Through sharing their story, they make an impassioned plea for students to learn from their mistakes. The feedback from students also showed that they appreciated hearing a true story about being a crash victim because it helped them to see that their actions could affect the lives of others.

Before this program 10% of Year 11 students identified themselves as Risk Takers on the road with 5% of students identifying as Totally Irresponsible drivers on the road. By the end of the presentation 95 % of students responded YES to the question “Following the program will you adopt safer road behaviours?” This shows an improvement in the way students see themselves as road users and will hopefully go some way to keeping our young people safe on the roads in future.

Hillary Trotter - Assistant Prinicpal