On 7th Februaryy Chairman Ian Bennett introduced the guest speaker Catherine Smith from Road Safety Education (RSE) which delivers the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness Program (RYDA).
 
     The RYDA program resulted from a Rotary Club in North Sydney in 2001 when they were motivated by the statistics of death and disability amongst young drivers.
Each year over 315 young people aged 17-25 die on Australian & New Zealand roads and 20 times this number are seriously injured.
     Much thought was put into doing something to address these dreadful figures and in 2004 RYD was born and its delivery was to be through a non-profit organisation the Road Safety Education Ltd. RSE is funded through corporate sponsorships, Rotary Clubs and a fee charged to participants who are drawn from year 11 and 12 students from schools.
     The fees charged to the students are kept to an absolute minimum, around $25 which is a little more than 50% of the actual costs. In some cases Rotary Clubs choose to further subsidise participants or pay the costs in full.
     The Mission Statement for the Program is: To provide evidence-based road safety education that supports
the development of a road safety culture, contributing to a reduction in road trauma.
It targets: Year 11 & 12 students for a one day out of school excursion. Designed for 120 - 180 students per program day, they attend six interactive 30 minute sessions within a supportive environment for informed decision making.
The six sessions encompass: Speed & Stopping; After The Crash; Genevieve’s Story (This is a video of a young girl’s trauma resulting from a road accident and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kcb8hccs8U); Road Choices; Hazards & Distractions; and, The ‘I’ In Drive (this is a session on self-awareness of what the individual’s personality brings to the car and involves a questionnaire that provides the student with a personal profile informing them of their strengths and weaknesses in making informed decisions about their driving or time as a passenger).
     The RYDA Program has reached 480,000+ students since 2004 and is the largest and most successful youth road safety education program in Australia & New Zealand. It is currently conducted across 90 venues in both countries and some 500 schools per year participate.
RYDA commenced in Victoria in June 2012. It delivers RYDA at 3 metro and 3 regional venues: Springvale, Broadmeadows, Lilydale, Phillip Island, Leongatha and Geelong (opened in August 2016)
     Over 8,500 students have participated to date and the aim to reach 10,000 students in the next 6 months.
However Catherine emphasised that if a suitable venue can be found closer to local schools who express a wish to have their students participate the program can be transported to that locality.
In the 10 years since 2004 there has been a 48% in youth road deaths and whilst safer cars, Government campaigns, better roads and changed laws have contributed to the overall decline in road deaths the decline in non-youth fatalities is only around 25%.
     There are a number of ways that Rotary can help. The most important is to provide contact with local schools, promote RYD to other Clubs, and consider supporting RYDA financially in disbursements and Club members can also act as volunteers in the Program.
     In thanking Catherine, Chairman Ian noted the passion she exhibited for the work that she and her organisation had undertaken, with Rotary as a significant partner, and that anything that could reduce the death and trauma on our roads, particularly in the young, had to be worthy of support.