RYDA Drives Home Safety Message

Kingaroy police officers, Senior Constable Brendan Seymour and Senior Constable Rhys Everitt, at RYDA on Wednesday

May 12, 2021

Students from four South Burnett high schools – either on their L-plates or about to be – went through a special road safety program this week aimed at cutting down the number of teenage crashes.

The RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) workshops are organised by the Kingaroy Rotary Club in conjunction with local police and volunteers, and have been running in the South Burnett for more than 10 years.

This year the venue was Kingaroy State High School, with the program running on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The RYDA program is put together by a not-for-profit group, Road Safety Education, which also provides some speakers.

About 150 Year 11 students from Murgon and Nanango State High schools and St Mary’s Catholic College attended on Tuesday, with Wednesday reserved for Kingaroy State High School students.

The students were divided into small groups and took turns attending a series of workshops.

This year’s topics included “Driver SOS”, the “I In Drive”, “Crash Investigators” and “Mind Matters”.

The “I in Drive” workshop encouraged students to examine their own personalities and weaknesses, judging risk awareness, self-control and the ability to speak up.

The “Crash Investigators” workshop was led by Steve Richter.

Steve became a paraplegic after being involved in a motorcycle crash in 2008. He spoke about the factors that led up to the incident and his personal journey afterwards.

The students also witnessed how long it can take to bring a vehicle to a complete stop.

An on-road display by Kingaroy police drivers on a closed off section off Avoca Street demonstrated how far it takes to stop from 40km/hr, 50km/h, 60km/h and 80km/h.

Other workshops were led by Rotary Youth facilitator Shayne Ralph and Col Rogerson, from South Burnett Motorcycle Rider Training.

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