Senior high school students will be challenged to change the way they think about road safety with the highly anticipated Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) one-day program coming to the Yanco Agricultural Institute from 21 – 24 February 2023.
The Rotary Clubs of Leeton and Leeton Central are continuing their partnership with industry leader Road Safety Education Limited (RSE) to bring the award-winning youth road safety program to Year 11 students from 15 high schools across the region.
RYDA is a highly engaging road safety education program which has been available since 2001 and has seen over 600,000 students attend the workshop across Australia and New Zealand. The workshop content has been developed according to best practice guidelines for road safety education in consultation with road safety experts, professional bodies, government and the educational sector, incorporating the latest available research. RYDA facilitators to lead the Leeton workshops include NSW Police Officers, Council Road Safety Officers, Driver Trainers and crash survivors.
The RYDA program is a series of practical and powerful workshops that provide students a unique opportunity to learn essential life skills at a critical time in their lives. The program covers a range of topics and takes students one school day to complete.
“Whether you’re driving or travelling with friends, every young person contributes to the safety of the road users around them. RYDA allows students to access the tools and strategies required to make good choices from any seat in the car,” said Steph Puntoriero, Leeton Shire Council’s Road Safety Officer.
Leeton’s RYDA program is held at Yanco Agricultural Institute annually and over 5,000 students have participated in the program since its inception in 2008. The 2023 workshops are already proving to be a hit with over 450 student registrations recorded. Students are attending from far and wide, including Leeton, Yanco, Narrandera, Griffith, Hay, Ardlethan, Barellan, Coleambally, Hillston, Lockhart, Ariah Park and Oaklands.
“We are very excited to be offering the program to local students and students from other areas of the Riverina with some travelling several hours to attend our well organised event,” said Mr David Lang, Leeton Central Rotary Club.
RYDA is made possible through the support of RSE’s corporate partners BOC, Toyota, Bridgestone, MTAA Super and Boral. Locally, RYDA is supported by the NSW Police Force through Murrumbidgee Police District, NSW Police Youth Command, Murrumbidgee Traffic and Highway Patrol Command as well as Leeton Shire Council, Narrandera Shire Council and the Yanco Agricultural Institute
