Question Time

ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Road Safety. Can the minister update the house on road safety educational initiatives in middle schools?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:37): I add my congratulations to those students. I would like to thank the member for Mitchell for his question and for his particular interest in road safety education. Young people aged 16 to 19 make up six per cent of the population, but they account for 12 per cent of fatalities and 15 per cent of serious injuries in South Australia each year. The government is helping South Australian middle school students learn more about making the right choices on our roads with the release this month of the 2010 edition of the Your Turn teacher resource.

This resource is for teachers of students in years 8 and 9 in South Australian schools. Extensive consultation has been undertaken during the development, writing and design processes, involving road safety and travel behaviour change experts within the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure; current middle year teachers; and staff from the Department of Education and Children's Services.

Your Turn recognises that year 8 and 9 students are directly involved in road use as passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, scooter riders, and even as horse riders, as well as being the drivers of the future. The revised edition incorporates a wider focus on the concept of safer, greener and more active travel and explores factors influencing young people's decision-making in the road environment. These include:

attitudes and values;

knowledge and application of road rules;

distractions and risks; and

motivators and barriers to personal decisions.

Your Turn comprises five separate units in which teaching and learning activities investigate the factors specific to road-user groups, being: passengers in private vehicles, passengers on public transport (including school buses), bike riders and pedestrians.

Students apply their understandings to scenarios and decision-making in relation to safer, greener and more active travel. This teacher resource complements the introduction of Way2Go, a program for safer, greener and more active travel for South Australian primary schools and their communities, and aims to reinforce these learnings for students embarking on their high school years.

Further information on both programs can be accessed as part of the 'community and education area' of DTEI's road safety website. Copies of Your Turn are being distributed to all South Australian schools with a year 8-9 enrolment this month. I believe that the Your Turn teacher resource creates an opportunity for safer, greener and more active travel among young people by offering teaching, learning and assessment strategies relevant to middle years schooling.