RYDA My Life : My Choices 2017

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On February 1st, members of our club went to St Patrick’s Technical College to lead and help run the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program. Many thanks to the other organisations and individuals involved in the program: Graham Meyer from the RAA, Peter Page Holden, Dave Sewell, St Patrick’s Technical College and others. The overall message of the day is “It’s your life and your choices. You can make a difference by deciding to become a lower risk driver or passenger.”

 

The day was divided into sessions with groups of students rotating between the different sessions throughout the day. The sessions’ topics included Risks and Hazards, Rights and Responsibilities,  Speed and Stopping and a Personality Test.

In Rights and Responsibilities Instructor Dave took the students through many of the restrictions on what they were allowed to do on our roads and some of the penalties for breaking the law. The extra restrictions on P plate drivers were also discussed with an emphasis on how those restrictions helped save lives.

The Risks and Hazards session was also run by Instructor Dave who got the students involved in listing many of the risks and hazards when driving including for example mobile phones and their use. The hazards are really anything that can distract a driver and shift their attention off of the task at hand, driving.

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Instructor Graham used the car that was on loan from Peter Page Holden to demonstrate the effects of various speeds on stopping distance.  Before showing the effects of speed on stopping he went through the safety features of the five star car and how to use them correctly.

The personality test was utilised to show the students how likely they were to take risks and how that relates to road safety. This also included suggestions such as telling the driver that you’re feeling sick if they’re driving too fast.

 

Many thanks to the Rotarians and other volunteers including instructors who helped run the program on the day, and served the morning tea and lunch that was provided by the club to the Rotarians, volunteers and the students who paticipated. They all contributed to making a very successful day.