70 Students Take Part In RYDA Workshop To Learn Essential Road Safety Skills And Habits

October 23, 2024

Toyota Australia equipped students with driving skills for the future hosting a Road Safety Education (RSE) RYDA workshop at Toyota’s Australia Centre of Excellence, Altona.

The workshop saw 70 Year 10 secondary school students from Australian International Academy participate in several sessions throughout the day to learn about road safety including exploring key risk areas for young drivers.

These key areas include managing mind state as a road safety risk factor, the relationship between speeding and stopping, investigate and learn from a real-life crash, how to safely share the road with other road users, and the importance of speaking up as passengers.

In attendance was Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, the Hon. Melissa Horne, who saw first-hand the impact the RYDA workshop has on students.

“With road trauma statistics currently heading in the wrong direction, programs like this are an essential element in helping especially exposed young and novice drivers make better, and safer, decisions on the road.”

Participants of the RYDA workshop experienced highly engaging and immersive sessions throughout the day that challenged the way they think about road safety.

Toyota Australia, Chief Marketing Officer, Vin Naidoo said Toyota is committed to making valuable road safety skills and habits accessible to all young Australians through its support of Road Safety Education.

“Toyota is proud to host and support the RYDA workshop at Altona providing students with lifesaving knowledge and motivation to take action to stay safe on the road,” Mr Naidoo said.

John Elliott, Head of Program Delivery for Road Safety Education said Toyota’s support for the RYDA program demonstrates its ongoing commitment to road safety.

“Drivers are at their highest risk of being involved in a crash during their first year of driving unsupervised, our aim is to equip young adults with essential road safety knowledge and mitigate this risk,”

“Without Toyota and our other partners’ support the RYDA program would be financially inaccessible to schools and students across Australia to take part and gain fundamental skills for staying safe as a driver throughout their lives.” said Mr Elliott.

Minister Horne spoke with teachers from Australian International Academy about the effectiveness of the workshop, not just in terms of the topics covered but the interactive delivery that keeps students moving throughout the day, and ensures active, participatory learning.

“Keeping our most vulnerable road users safe is a priority for the Victorian Government as we strive to achieve zero road deaths by 2050. Education is a key element of the Safe System, which includes safer roads, safer cars, safer speeds and safer road users.”

Since 2010 Toyota has supported RSE and its RYDA Program which aims to provide evidence-based road safety education to young drivers and their passengers nationally.

RYDA is Australia’s and New Zealand’s largest and longest-running best-practice road safety education program for high-school students.

Since 2001, more than 800,000 students have participated in the program, including 4,484 students from 50 schools in Victoria throughout 2024.