Young Waitaki drivers are taking part in a course this week to help ensure they do not make up part of this year’s road statistics.

Figures show people are more likely to be involved in a crash in their first year of driving unsupervised, and getting behind the wheel of a car is one of the most dangerous things a young person can do.

Last year there were 377 fatalities from crashes - 59 more than 2021. More than a third of that number - 127, were in the 15-30 age group.

On Wednesday and Thursday (February 15 and 16) senior high school pupils from Waitaki Girls’ and Waitaki Boys’ High Schools, St Kevin’s College and East Otago High School are attending Road Safety Education Limited’s RYDA workshop. 

The workshop is a potentially life-saving education programme, professionally developed and delivered by trained local mentors.

The RYDA programme, which included a full-day workshop of practical and powerful sessions, challenged students to change the way they thought about road safety and laid the foundation for safer road use throughout their lives, Road Safety Education New Zealand general manager Maria Lovelock said.

The programme also included a range of resources for students and teachers to use to reinforce the strategies taught at the workshop, including an online digital revision course, pre-workshop classwork, and follow up modules on a range of complementary road safety topics, which schools can pick and choose from and build into their curriculum.

The programme had been coordinated through Waitaki District Council with support from a variety of corporate sponsors.

“We believe this programme is contributing to saving young people’s lives on the roads.” Maria said.

“We applaud Waitaki Girls’ High School, Waitaki Boys’ High School, St Kevin’s College and East Otago High School for committing to this educational programme for their students.”

Young people continued to be over-represented in deaths and serious injuries on the roads. Contributing factors included driver inexperience, risky driving behaviours such as speeding, driving while fatigued, driving without a seatbelt and driving smaller and/or older vehicles with fewer safety features. 

“Now more than ever we need to be investing time into our young people and next generation of drivers and their passengers to ensure they get to realise the future they were promised,” she said.

The risk of crashing diminished with experience, and the development of decision-making skills to recognise risky situations and make safe choices. RYDA “front-loads” those skills.

It backed up physical driving lessons, by teaching the cognitive skills required to manage distractions, providing an understanding and acceptance of the road rules, along with the contributing factors of physics.

The programme also included a range of resources for students and teachers to use to reinforce the strategies taught at the workshop, including an online digital revision course, pre-workshop classwork and follow up modules on a range of complementary road safety topics which schools can pick and choose from and build into their curriculum.

To date, more than 90,000 students have completed the RYDA programme throughout New Zealand.