IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Wednesday 29 November 2023, Sydney: Approximately 270 year 10 students from three Albury public high schools will take part in the region’s first RYDA program on 29-30 November. RYDA is a professionally developed road safety initiative that aims to equip students with the tools, habits and behaviours to stay safe on roads as both drivers and passengers.
Every year, approximately 1200 people are killed and another 44,000 are seriously injured on Australian roads1.Traffic injury is the biggest killer of Australian children under 15 and the second-biggest killer of all Australians aged between 15 and 242.
The RYDA program is professionally developed by leading learning organisation and not-for-profit Road Safety Education Limited (RSE), with the Albury-Wodonga program delivered alongside corporate partner Boral Limited (“Boral”), one of the largest suppliers of construction materials in Australia, and hosted by the Rotary Club of Albury.
Students at Murray High School, James Fallon High School and Albury High School will join the more than 735,000 young people, to date, who have participated in the RYDA program, in part through the support of Boral, other corporate partners and Governments.
Boral will have a heavy vehicle present at the workshop to help students better understand the varying risks around trucks compared with general motor vehicles. Students will hear from a Boral driver on their experiences and knowledge on operating trucks on the road, and have the opportunity to sit in the cabin to understand its blind spots, learn about stopping speeds of heavy vehicles, and the different risks and considerations when sharing a road with trucks.
Rod Cousin, Area Operations manager for Boral Concrete, says: “As one of the Australia’s largest suppliers of construction materials, this naturally means we also have a large heavy vehicle footprint and are on roads everyday to support deliveries to out customers. We are committed to Zero Harm and safety procedures, extending to taking responsibility for road safety and better educating drivers and passengers with whom we share the road with.
“We are proud to provide long-term support of road safety initiatives like the RYDA program, and expand this education to the regional community of Albury-Wodonga. It’s important that we educate our future drivers on best practice road safety and how to think and act while driving, in addition to how they can remain safe on our shared roads. Playing an active role in our partnership with RSE is a great experience for us and the next generation of drivers.”
John Elliott, RSE’s Head of Marketing and Program Delivery, said: "We're excited to launch the RYDA program in Albury, marking the first one in this in-land city. Albury has a significant presence of trucks on its roads, which provides a great setting for providing youth with the tools and resources to stay safe around them. Our RYDA program promises to be a good experience for novice drivers and passengers, highlighting the unique considerations of sharing the road with heavy vehicles".
To date, more than 760,000 young people have attended RYDA, in part through the support of Boral, other Corporate partners and Governments. As a key road user, Boral is committed to safety and Zero Harm, extended to taking responsibility for road safety.
1 Queensland Government, StreetSmarts, https://streetsmarts.initiatives.qld.gov.au/national-road-safety-week2023/#:~:text=Every%20year%2C%20more%20than%201%2C200,visit%20the%20SARAH%20Group%20website
2 Australian Automobile Association, https://www.aaa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AAA-Reviving-Road-Safety2019.pdf
Photo/video opportunity:
Boral will have a truck and driver at the RYDA sessions held at PCYC Albury, Keene Street on 29-30 November at 12-1pm, where students will learn about blind spots, keeping clear of heavy vehicles and other heavy vehicle education.
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About Boral
Boral is the largest vertically-integrated construction materials company in Australia. Our network includes prized quarry and cement infrastructure, bitumen, construction materials recycling, asphalt and concrete batching operations. We employ about 7,500 employees and contractors across our operations that span more than 360 sites nation-wide. For more than 75 years we’ve been building something great in Australia - rarely a day goes by that you wouldn’t pass one of our sites or trucks, enter a building, use a road, bridge, tunnel, footpath or other critical infrastructure that our people and products have helped enable.