Safety of young drivers funded

YEAR 11 students throughout Noosa shire will benefit from more than $8.4 million in funding from the State Government to help improve road safety.
Main Roads and Road Safety Minister Mark Bailey announced the latest round of the Community Road Safety Grants during Road Safety Week from 22-28 August. Accordingly, the Rotary Club of Noosa is set to receive $130,722 to fund their Rotary Youth Driver Awareness program (RYDA).
“The Rotary Club of Noosa will use the funds to provide young driver road safety education to Year 11 students from 10 schools in the Noosa area for the next three years,” Mr Bailey said.
Rotary Club of Noosa president Tess Alexandroff said the funding was great news for the RYDA program.
“This grant will enable us to offer this program free of charge to the 10 secondary schools from Cooroy down to and including Coolum,” she said.
The RYDA program focuses on Year 11 students to enable them to become aware of their rights and responsibilities and the consequences of bad decisions and poor behaviour on the roads.
RYDA is a one-day, six-session program held at an out-of-school venue, chosen to highlight crucial road safety messages.
The program has been successfully run by the Rotary clubs of Noosa, Noosa Heads, Cooroy and Daybreak clubs over the last seven years.
“I urge the school principals to book early and make sure that all of your Year 11 students take full advantage of this very valuable program at no cost to the students,” Ms Alexandroff said.
“If we can save just one life with this program, then it has all been worthwhile.”
Other schools to benefit from the latest round of funding includes Noosaville State School that will also receive $2880 to provide cycle skills sessions and road safety education materials to their Year 4-5 students.
Tewantin State School will receive $3000 to provide cycle skills sessions and road safety education materials to their Year 4-5 students and Noosa Shire Council will receive a total of $11,079 to deliver cycle skills training to disadvantaged students at Cooran, Federal, Cooroy, Pomona and Kin Kin State Schools as well as develop an education campaign for visitors and residents on how to safely use the many roundabouts in Noosa.
For more information, including a full list of grant recipients, go to www.tmr.qld.gov.au/roadsafetygrants and to find out more about Queensland Road Safety Week, visit jointhedrive.qld.gov.au/road-safety-week.