Road safety partnership to deliver driver education to 40,000 students
Construction material company Boral has signed a three-year sponsorship agreement to help Road Safety Education (RSE) educate more than 40,000 senior high school students in road safety every year.
RSE’s flagship program, RYDA, now in its 17th year, provides young drivers with road safety knowledge and skills.
It focuses on cognition development, helping students develop and practise personalised strategies and life skills to help them respond to challenges on the road, both as drivers and passengers.
Boral, which operates a fleet of more than 2,500 heavy vehicles, says the partnership to help improve road safety is beneficial for all parties involved.
“We are particularly excited about joining forces with RSE, whose programs are recognised as world class,” Boral Australia divisional chief executive Joe Goss says.
“Boral takes safety extremely seriously, with a commitment to zero harm across our operations, including our drivers on public roads.
“We have a strong focus on safety and training for our drivers, but 93 per cent of fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles are not caused by the driver of the heavy vehicle. So there is an obvious gap, which this new road safety partnership will attempt to address.
“We are looking forward to working with RSE and sharing our knowledge to help develop additional education material and awareness training for young drivers when it comes to sharing the road with heavy vehicles. This means improving road safety for young people, heavy vehicle drivers and the community more broadly.”
Turning the tide: Mack Boral 10×4 Agitator. Read more, here
RSE CEO and managing director Terry Birss echoes the sentiment, thanking Boral for its “significant commitment” towards the development of a road safety culture over many generations of drivers.
“Road safety is a shared responsibility and making our roads safer requires the support of organisations such as Boral,” Birss says.
“Youth road trauma is a community tragedy that needs a whole of community response. Road trauma levels have declined over the years, however, the annual economic cost of road crashes in Australia is estimated at $27 billion, and the social impacts are devastating.
“By joining the RYDA family, Boral and RSE will work towards their goal of achieving zero harm and educating all novice drivers and their passengers on road safety.”