Road safety education in South Australian public schools will be revamped to ensure students are provided with the right information to help them make safe decisions when on the road.

This comes after a review of school safety programs following a number of high-profile road incidents involving young people.

The Education Department is strengthening road safety information through the curriculum as well as collaborating with key stakeholders, including teachers and students and other agencies in the area of road safety, such as the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the Metropolitan Fire Service and South Australia Police.

As part of a multi-agency effort made possible through funding from the State Government’s Think! Road Safety Program, two vital road safety programs have been expanded to ensure greater reach of road safety education in South Australia and will form part of the South Australian Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25.

The MFS’s Road Awareness Program, a program delivered by specially trained firefighters to young drivers, has received a boost and will deliver presentations to more than 150 schools and community clubs across metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia.

This includes 55 sessions across regional and outback South Australia, the largest number of sessions delivered to the regions.

Australian Science and Mathematics School Principal Kylie Eggers said the MFS Road Awareness Program is one of the significant ways by which we highlight the importance of road safety and making good choices to our students.

“The program contains hard-hitting underlying messages and cuts through with students as it reflects the lived experience of road trauma and its far-reaching consequences”.

“As a Principal and school leader, I know of the terrible impact that road crashes can have for our whole community, so we work collaboratively to improve our students’ road awareness whether as pedestrians, cyclists, passengers or driving themselves”.

Central Adelaide Local Health Network’s Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) program has also been expanded to deliver 24 sessions to schools in Ceduna, Port Pirie, Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln, the Riverland and the Barossa Valley.

Both programs give secondary students a confronting insight into road crash trauma in a bid to change their behaviours on the road and their attitudes to road safety.

Statistics show that road crashes are one of the major causes of death and serious injury for 16 to 24-year-olds in South Australia, while trauma is responsible for over 40% of deaths in the 15 to 25-year-old age group across Australia.