RYDA course makes for safer teen drivers
‘The power to control your mindset is in your hands,” 78 Year 12 Dannevirke students from Dannevirke High and Totara College were told recently.
They were attending the RYDA Programme — the leading and only national road safety education programme for youth in New Zealand.
It was providing young people with the skills and strategies they need to stay safe on the road.
It is brought by the Road Safety
Education Charitable Trust, endorsed by NZTA and supported by Rotary clubs throughout New Zealand.
On Thursday members of the Dannevirke Rotary Club attended as guides, set up and paid for the A&P Showgrounds venue.
During a full school day the group attended six interactive workshops giving them a unique opportunity to set road safety goals and build strategies “alongside the friends they will most likely be riding with as drivers or passengers”.
The students generally enjoyed the day, finding the practical lessons on road control, speed and stopping the most informative.
They each took away a booklet with information they had filled in as a reminder of the lessons learned that day.
Across the nation 91 per cent of students three months post RYDA said they would apply the things they learned at RYDA as a passenger or driver and 98 per cent of 873 classroom teachers said RYDA should be compulsory for senior high school students.
Tararua College students attended the course a week earlier.