Thought for the Week: -

Friends don't let friends drink-drive!

Birdwood High School and Road Safety - some background

A number of families have lived in our local area for several generations. Some of our staff members have worked in local schools all their working lives. Many local business people and identities have lived in the area for years, and are well-known. There is a rich history of sport, including football, cricket and netball, which brings people together at weekends.

In such a community, road crashes are particularly traumatic, because "everybody knows everybody" and the ripple effect of road death spreads far and wide. Nearly everybody in the community attended Birdwood High School, so most road crash victims are "ex-students". When a passenger dies in a car crash, people blame the driver (often with good cause) and this can make it extremely difficult for that person to go on living in the community.

On average, a current or former student of Birdwood dies every year in a road crash. This has been the case for many years, and is not a recent phenomenon. Local undertaker Andrew Kleeman can remember three deaths during his time at Birdwood, and that was many years ago.

There are some features of our local environment which make it potentially dangerous, including high rainfall, fog, narrow winding roads, changing road surfaces, farm equipment on the road, large trees and rock faces - the list goes on. Many of our students criticise the local roads, with some justification, but the reality is that we live in an imperfect world and it is the driver's responsibility to drive to the conditions as they exist now.

There is also a lack of public transport for the journeys our students tend to make. These include travelling to the northern suburbs via One Tree Hill or to the city via Chain of Ponds. Often these journeys are taken to attend parties, and are undertaken at all hours of the night, when the weather and visibility are at their worst.

Within the hills, a student from, say, Mt Torrens who wishes to attend a party at Williamstown has few options but to drive.

It is also abundantly clear that the usual temptations common to youth everywhere are present in the Hills - namely drugs and alcohol. Our school has a strict policy on drugs, but we have no control over what happens at weekends. We know that some of our students are taking risks and making bad decisions, as well as succumbing to peer pressure against their better judgement.

It is against this background that Birdwood High School decided to incorporate Road Safety into the curriculum in a major way. Mr Bert Jordan developed the initial "Save a Young Life" initiative about seven years ago, providing a starting point for what is now a comprehensive range of strategies.

Our Beliefs

There is a lot of research to suggest that "in-car" training in schools makes no real difference to the likelihood of students having crashes. For this reason, we have avoided trying to actually "train" would-be drivers, or to help students to get their licences sooner than they would otherwise. Instead, we enlist the help of Roadsafe Australia, who provide a Driver Awareness Course for students who already have their Provisional Licence. In this way, we are giving existing drivers better skills, rather than helping them to get onto the road sooner. There seems little doubt that the first twelve months on the road is the most critical period for young drivers, and many teenagers lack the maturity at age 16 to handle this responsibility.

We believe that the most important role we can play is in providing knowledge about driving-related issues, including drugs, the law, peer pressure, community values and protective behaviours. Our ultimate goal is to change a student's attitude, so that dangerous decisions and foolhardy behaviours are avoided.

Giving our students the strategies and the confidence to take a stand against their peers is an important part of helping them to make good decisions and ultimately, to stay alive.

We need our students to take responsibility for the choices they make, such as choosing to get drunk, choosing to get into a particular car, etc. The bottom line is that many crashes are avoidable, and have an easily-identified cause.

We also know that a number of our students live in rural areas, and have "paddock-bashers" which they drive unlicensed on private property. "Burnouts" and "drifting" are also seen as clever, desirable behaviours (unfortunately promoted by various forms of motor sport).

It is important that students understand that ALL actions have consequences, and that society in general does NOT approve of these activities, particularly on public roads.

Setting the Boundaries

Whenever I start with a new Driver Education class, I establish the "rules of engagement" during the first few lessons. There is a lot of peer pressure about what you drive, how you drive, when and where you drive, and it is important that the student group does not hijack the agenda. I discuss the following issues: -

1.       No put-downs - every student has a right to an opinion, and to their choice of car. The loudmouth with the Skyline has no more status than the student who drives mum's Volvo! (If only there was more of the latter!)

2.       We need to be mindful of other students' experiences, as well as our own - some people may have lost loved ones, so speak about road safety in the third person and avoid things that are likely to be upsetting.

3.       The subject aims to educate young drivers in the conventional wisdom and commonly-held beliefs of the wider society. The outcomes should reflect this - a report should not, for example, conclude that drifting on public roads is fine!

4.       There is a real danger of giving hero status to young drivers who have broken the law or behaved badly and got away with it. Therefore we avoid naming people and discuss these incidents in general terms or, once again, in the third person. The use of videos and guest speakers who speak of real consequences, such as several years in gaol or years of convalescence, can be a real boon here.