By Margaret Maccoll
More than 120 students from St Teresa’s Catholic College should be safer on the roads after taking part last week in the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program.
Students take a day off to learn practical road safety skills delivered through the program.
RYDA targets 16 to18-year-old students and includes six interactive sessions delivered to small student groups covering topics such as hazard perception, distraction management, vehicle safety, stopping distance, fatigue and experiences of a crash survivor.
Rotary Club of Noosa president Tess Alexandroff said if even one life could be saved from this training, then it’s all worthwhile.
“Since 2009, the combined Rotary clubs have held 44 program days, with 3778 Year 11 students having attended the RYDA Program locally,” she said.
“To illustrate the larger point, more than 500,000 have attended RYDA Australia-wide since the program’s inauguration some 16 years ago.”
The combined clubs of Noosa, Noosa Heads, Noosa Daybreak and Cooroy assisted at the program held at the House With No Steps in Doonan.
Rotary hopes the program which now attracts about 64 per cent of students will attract all year students.
For more information, visit www.rse.org.au/RYDA
