A new set of 16-year-olds with fresh learner licences head out on to New Zealand roads each year.

That’s why the Bay of Plenty Rotary Clubs brought to the Bay a youth driving awareness programme for highschoolers to teach them some skills and strategies around safety and mindset.

On Thursday, October 24, two groups – around 200 students – from Mount Maunganui College will be attending this programme from 9am-2.30pm.

The Rotary Youth Driving Awareness Programme (RYDA) is a Rotary initiative that aims to deliver co-ordinated, updated and practical road safety information to school students who have recently or are in the process of obtaining their driving licence.

“It aims to keep our Year 12s safe as they start their journey to driving on the road,” said Rotary Club member and programme chair Jerry Cowper.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Ruapehu College.

He said the programme won’t be teaching the students how to drive, but instead to learn the mechanics of how cars work and strategies they can use to drive better. The rest is to do with mindset and attitude.

The programme, which is run by Road Safety Education, engages specialist facilitators to complement the school road safety curriculum and provide an opportunity for 15- and 16-year-old students to access additional road safety resources not available within schools.

The key aim is to influence the attitude of young people and inform them of their responsibilities when driving or riding in a vehicle, thereby assisting our community in achieving a reduction in deaths and injuries on our roads.

“There are six components in the course. One’s called ‘Drive SOS’, one is called ‘Speed and Stopping’, one is called ‘Mind Matters’, one is called ‘I ‘n Drive’, one is called ‘Road Choices’, and the other is called ‘Crash investigators’.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme. Photo supplied.

Speed and Stopping

“Speed and Stopping is facilitated outside with the vehicle. The students are shown all the safety features of the vehicles.”

During this session, Cowper said they will learn about tyre tread and when they need to change their tyres.

They will also be taught the meaning behind safety ratings and they will be encouraged to buy cars with higher safety ratings if they can afford to do so.

The students will be shown a demonstration of a car driving fast and stopping quickly. They will be given the opportunity to guess where they think the car will come to a halt.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Speed and Stopping. Photo supplied.

“I’ve been going to these courses since 2018 and barely one group of year 12s has got it right.

“They always overcook it and say no it’ll stop here, and the vehicle passes past where they’ve said it’s going to stop and goes on another 50-100m.

“It gives them a better appreciation of thinking you can stop on a 10 cent piece, when you actually can’t.

“We’ve had students out there with calculators trying to do the physics on it and still getting it wrong.”

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Speed and Stopping. Photo supplied.

Cowper said the point of the demonstration is to show the students that when driving at speed, you are unable to stop to a halt immediately. They then explain that if this happens in wet weather, the car will continue even further before coming to a halt.

Crash Investigators

During the Crash Investigators session, they will meet a crash survivor. This session is not about the fact the survivor is now wheelchair bound, but rather it’s about taking the opportunity to investigate the situation and how the survivor got into the crash.

“The group breaks into several teams and they go away and brainstorm.

They come back to him [survivor] to ask him questions like, what were you doing before you go into the car? How fast was the car going? Had you been drinking? Had you been taking drugs? What made you get the keys?

“He answers them very openly and honestly and explains to the students that we’re all young and we all make mistakes.

“It’s about breaking down what led to the accident and strategies to stop them repeating mistakes that he’s made.”

Road Choices

The Road Choices session is run by the police. “It’s not coming from a punitive angle, it’s explaining why they do various license categories, driving with somebody in the car that hasn’t got a full license and what the consequences are.

“They’ve got some very good statistics that they show from NZTA on who is most at risk when they’re driving.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Road Choices. Photo supplied.

“The interesting one is that an unlicensed driver or a provisional driver is at the highest risk. However, if they’re got a fully licensed driver sitting alongside them, the risk profiles move from the riskiest to the least risk.

“Suddenly it reinforces why we have this provisional driving system.”

Cowper said the reason they go over this is because students often pile into cars at the end of the school day with a provisional driver.

Mind Matters

The Mind Matters section focuses on the driver’s mind state when driving and how it positively or negatively can affect their driving.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Tauranga Rotary volunteers. Photo supplied.

Drive SOS

The Drive SOS session is about focusing on driving and looking for risks on the road.

“For example, if a child is playing on the footpath and the ball they are playing with bounces onto the road and someone could come running after it.

“It’s getting them to identify the risk areas outside of your vehicle happening right now.

“It’s making them spatially aware and getting them to be ready for the unknown that could suddenly happen.”

‘I’ n Drive

‘I’ n Drive focuses on knowing yourself, self-control, thinking social, risk awareness and speaking up.

Cowper said the section is about helping students to create usable strategies for each category.

Throughout the day they will have a break between every two sessions to refresh.

NCEA credits are available for students who complete the pre-course papers, day course and post course papers.

The BOP Rotary Clubs financially support the initiative to ensure that all students get the opportunity to learn these essential and lifesaving skills.

“Every course roughly costs about $8000. We offer courses to all colleges from Waihi and Whangamata right the way down to Te Puke. This year we will have undertaken seven courses.

“For every course, Rotary puts in $2500 towards the course. The schools generally pay $10 a student and the balance is funded from Road Safety Education and they fund it from various sponsorships and trusts.

Youth Driving Awareness Programme, Tauranga Te Papa Rotary volunteers. Photo supplied.

BOP Rotary clubs support the RYDA programme by providing volunteers on the day the school attends and by making a significant financial contribution to ensure that no students miss out for financial reasons and that costs to schools and students are minimised.

“The whole point is that it’s a one-day intensive course where the students pick up critical information all designed to help them as they begin their journey into becoming drivers.

“At the end of the day, Rotary’s reasoning for participating in this road safety initiative is if by doing the RYDA programme, we stop one adult from killing himself or killing someone else, then our investment in the programme has paid for itself.”