We have hit the year with gusto, launching a major Ryda update to Ryda 6.0; rolling out our Drive Coach across New Zealand and digging into crash data finding interesting trends from the latest statistics.
In this issue – scroll down or click to jump ahead:
This year, as part of our quest for continual improvement, our review led to some significant changes in most workshop sessions.
Mind Matters: We’ve removed the Genevieve’s Story video and replaced it with a lively, fun role-play where students get to experience the impact of various moods through relatable scenarios.
Why? We’ve been running the role-play version in NZ for a couple of years and our survey and feedback evidence shows a greater connection to the learning outcomes using this method. It better aligns with the way students learn and best practice principles.
I in Drive: We’ve added a new/additional all-in role-play for students to practice giving a hard message to a friend using an indirect approach. We’ve also updated the ‘Anything’ video.
Why? While it was important to keep the facilitator-led role-play with two students to workshop ideas of what works and what doesn’t when speaking up, this second role-play gives every student a chance to try it for themselves.
Road Choices: We’ve moved the fines to the end of the session and added a short discussion around alcohol, medicines and drugs.
Why? While fines are an important deterent, we wanted to ensure the correct amount of session time and focus is spent on building strategies to mitigate risk when it comes to impairment and distractions.
Crash Investigators: We’ve created our own video to replace the Safe Systems introduction video.
Why? The new scenario of three young people driving home from a day out and being distracted by a phone is more relevant to our young audience and helps them make stronger connections to the learning.
Speed & Stopping: We’ve scripted a static version of multiplying effects of speed demonstration which can be used when a suitable roadway is not available (or in a covered location in poor weather).
Why? When we can’t demonstrate braking distances live, we lose the proof students need to buy into the learning. By engaging students with a mathematical experiment, they are able to prove the formula and get a stronger understanding of how far a car will travel after applying the brakes.
Drive SOS: We’ve replaced the opening slides with a new activity, switched the order of discussions and added a discussion on overtaking.
Why? We often saw the conversation going off-topic with the previous slide so we’ve replaced it with an activity for students. The new order improves the flow of the session and with the removal of Genevieve’s Story we found another spot for the overtaking dilema.
Fatalities among young people in Australia and New Zealand have halved over the past 25 years. However, did you know that male drivers aged 85 plus are now the most over-represented, relative to their share of population?
A detailed analysis of road fatality data from 2000 to 2024 shows that fatalities among young people—those aged 17 to 25 in Australia and 15 to 24 in New Zealand—have halved since 2000, while all other ages have fallen by 23%, bringing the total fall in road fatalities to 30% between 2000 and 2024.
Youths make up less than 10% of the population of Australia and New Zealand and remain overrepresented in road trauma statistics. Despite this positive trend, more must be done to sustain and accelerate this progress. Our white paper explores the impact of road safety initiatives, the effectiveness of youth-focused education programs like Ryda, and emerging challenges that demand attention, including the rising risk among older drivers. Read the full paper here.
This term we are running more than 100 workshops with over 18,000 students booked. From Nambour to Cromwell we are continuing our mission to keep communities free from road deaths and serious injuries. A highlight of the term will be the opportunity to work with 23 new schools/organisations, including students from Growing Great Farmers in NZ and Project Booyah in Toowoomba. Both groups are working with young people in vocational programs outside of standard schools and are committed to including best practise road safety in their curriculums. Our flexible delivery options have allowed us to accommodate them and ensure these young people don’t miss out on our life saving messages.
Check out our calendar to see all locations.
Save the date for National Road Safety Week! The official launches of the weeks happen in:
Look out for icons across our nations lit up in yellow, wear yellow and pop on your yellow ribbon pins to help us raise awareness around this leading cause of death and serious injury in our countries. Every day is road safety day for us here at RSE as we provide the Ryda program throughout the year. Under the spotlight of Road Safety Week, our team will be around the country running Ryda workshops and Drive Coach parent evenings. In total we will be delivering over around 40 workshops to over 5,500 students. In Australia, look out for us in Bega, Brisbane, Central Coast (where we’ll be celebrating our 30,000th student in the area), Devonport, Gladstone, Gold Coast, Nambour, Sydney and Warranambool. In NZ, we will be in Auckland, Gore, Hamilton, Hutt Valley (including 2 Drive Coach workshops), Invercargill and Wellsford.
“I gained a deeper understanding of myself—insights that I might not have discovered otherwise. This self-awareness has helped me clarify my approach to risk-taking, heightened my attention to potential hazards, and improved my self-control when it comes to making decisions while driving. As a result, I’m now more mindful of my actions on the road, allowing me to make safer, more informed choices behind the wheel” (Student, Meriden School)
Photo attribution: Sydney Harbour Bridge: @philipps.world.of.photography
