Sober message for TPHS drivers
Getting behind the wheel is just one of the new experiences that comes with the teenage years.
Hand-in-hand with the newfound freedom comes newfound responsibilities, and it is highlighting those responsibilities that is behind Students Against Driving Dangerously (SADD).
Last week saw a series of lunchtime events organised by Te Puke High School’s SADD committee, aimed at getting the message across.
Committee members put up crosses to represent those who have died as a result of dangerous driving and there was a chance for students to tackle an obstacle course wearing “drunk goggles” designed to replicate the impairment of reaction times caused by drugs or alcohol.
Students made handprints on the Student Learning Centre glass doors to pledge they will never go in a car with a dangerous driver.
The winning entry in a competition to design a road safety slogan sign was won by the MDES small group.
Thanks to Travelsafe, run by Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District councils, the design has been made into a sign that is now of the side of a school building facing Beatty Avenue.
“We really wanted to put up something on the Beatty Ave side of the school where a lot of the
The competition-winning small group MDES with their design that is now a sign at Te Puke High School. students park,” says the high school’s SADD co-ordinator Jo Melton.
“And because it’s a student-led initiative . . . Travelsafe said they would fund it.”
Jo says the committee organises the various events and activities as a peer education programme, and the activities are open to all students to participate in.
The programme has six principles: Sober Drivers, Safe Speeds, No Distractions, Avoiding Risk, Drive to the Conditions, Build Experience.