City students working to combat biggest killer of young people

A leading body in road safety is trying to make a pilot program mandatory part of the school curriculum after data revealed the startling impact road trauma has on children.

Toowoomba Grammar School students have participated in a pilot program aiming to educate them on road trauma.

Road trauma is the biggest killer of Australian children aged between one and 14 years old.

It’s the second biggest killer of adolescents and adults between 15 and 24 years.

That’s why when the Australian Road Safety Foundation paid a visit to Toowoomba Grammar School students on Friday, it was more important than ever for the students to understand the risks of getting behind the wheel, and onto our roads.

A pilot program called RoadSet was kicked off at the school, and aimed to instil the practices of safety and road responsibility in primary, and high school aged students.

ARSF Founder and CEO Russell White said the program was a critical first step towards a mandatory requirement youngpeople using the road.

“Too often when we think about road safety we narrow in on just drivers specifically, but the reality is that as road users, every single person as passengers, pedestrians and cyclists have a key role to play in preventing tragic loss of life or injury,” Mr White said.

“This first stage of RoadSet is to embed safety understanding among young people to address risks as general road users right now, while also fostering a generation of safer drivers in the future.

“We’ve worked to make this as simple as possible for schools and community groups to adopt – it’s made available free of charge, takes zero planning or preparation, can be done on any device and aligns with the Year 9 and 10 school curriculum.”

Toowoomba Grammar Head of Senior School Mark Oliphant said the RoadSet program had been a hugely valuable addition to its health and safety education and initiatives.

“We know that students need to be engaged in content, it needs to be interactive and easy to digest in order to make an impact, and we’ve found RoadSet to deliver on just that,” he said.

“It’s been encouraging to see that all our RoadSet participants are engaging in meaningful conversations and RoadSet allows us to start those conversations and we aim to continue them throughout the students secondary schooling.”

Both individual students and parents, as well as teachers and community educators are encouraged to visit www.roadset.com.au on any device to start their RoadSet journey today.

Schools who register before the end of Term 2 will also have a chance to win a meet and greet with Australian driving champion and ARSF ambassador, Craig Lowndes.