BRIGHT IDEA THAT WILL STOP TRAFFIC
SOCIAL worker Ryan Purdie is on a mission to shine a light on road safety education in schools.
The 30-year-old aged care worker in Victoria collects traffic lights and poles destined for landfill and upcycles them to be functioning educational tools.
“I started in 2017 with an idea of recycling old hardware and stuff that usually gets thrown away,” Mr Purdie said. “I now have an arrangement with VicRoads where they give me damaged or older model traffic lights to repurpose.”
Mr Purdie has donated educational traffic lights to more than 170 schools across Australia, including in remote communities.
“I buy sequencers from America and install them to make the lights work as they would on the road,” he said.
“The kids love being able to interact with the lights, and you can tell they’re really engaged when they’re learning.”
With more than 100 refurbished traffic lights in his backyard, Mr Purdie said he couldn’t wait for schools to reopen so he could continue his work.
To help, head to Traffic Lights For Kinders on Facebook.
THE Cocos (Keeling) Islands are preparing for a tropical cyclone to hit as the system moves towards Western Australia this weekend.
Tropical Cyclone Mangga was expected to bring heavy rain and possible gales of up to 100km/h to the islands in the Indian Ocean late yesterday.
The category one system, with winds near the centre of 65km/h, is heading southeast and is due to pass west of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
The cyclone will continue in that direction and is expected to bring severe weather to western parts of the state tomorrow and Monday.