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2009 Queensland Road Safety Awards winners
On Thursday 8 October, around 150 guests attended the 2009 Queensland Road Safety Awards ceremony and announcement of winners at Parliament House. The event was hosted by Mr Liam Renton from Radio 96.5, and awards were presented by Hon. Rachel Nolan, Minister for Transport.
Premier’s Award for Community Road Safety
Keys to a Future – Queensland Youth Services Inc
Outstanding Service to Queensland Road Safety
Wayne Leo – Spinal Education Awareness Team
Queensland Road Safety Award – Community
RYDA Youth Drive Awareness Program – RYDA AustraliaCommendation
Motorcycle Awareness Training Education Safety Program - MATES
Queensland Road Safety Award - Schools
Bikebus – Trinity Beach State SchoolCommendation
Choices – Conservatorium of Music, CQU, Mackay Campus
Queensland Road Safety Award - Innovation
BRAKE Driver Awareness Program (Distance Education Mode) – Tamara Warner
Queensland Road Safety Award – Industry and Business
Be Smart, Be Safe, Be Cool – Caboolture Bus Lines
Queensland Road Safety Award – Local Government
SMART Motorcycle Rider Training – Gold Coast City Council
Queensland Road Safety Award – State Government
Overseas Motorist Road Awareness Program - Senior Constable Andrew Plumb
Commendation
Share My Story – Department of Transport and Main Roads
Commendation
Roadwork Safety Campaign – Department of Transport and Main Roads
Premier’s Award for Community Road Safety
Keys to a Future – Queensland Youth Services Inc
Queensland Youth Services Inc., whose mandate is to work with homeless and disadvantaged youth, has put together a pilot program offering young people a chance to become safe licensed drivers.
A graduated licensing system mandating learner drivers to complete 100 hours of supervised on-road experience was introduced in Queensland in July 2007. The Young Drivers participating in the Keys to a Future program require assistance with obtaining a driver's licence, as they either have no access to a vehicle for training purposes or have no mentor driver, parent or friend, to supervise them to gain practical driving skills to obtain a licence. Nor can they afford to pay for professional driving school lessons.
With the commitment and goodwill of volunteer Mentors, the young Learner Drivers are given on-road driving instruction with the use of the Mentor's own vehicle or the QYS vehicle. Fuel is subsidised and insurances are taken care of by QYS. QYS has engaged the assistance of a local professional driver trainer from Alf's Driving School, to instruct the Mentors in Learner Driver training. One to two hours of lessons are also given to the Young Driver.
QYS plans to enlist 25 volunteer mentors to assist up to 50 learner drivers over a 12 month period to gain on-road driving experience. QYS implemented the program in February 2009, and has recruited and trained 9 community volunteers to perform the mentoring role. As this program is self-funded from QYS existing budget, all learner driver applicants have come from QYS programs.
At present 31 young learner drivers have applied for this service. So far, over the past 5 months, one learner driver is eligible to undertake her practical test, and 135 on-road driving hours have been registered in the log books of learner drivers.
Outstanding Service to Queensland Road Safety
Wayne Leo – Spinal Education Awareness Team
For the past 22 years, Brisbane’s Wayne Leo has been an integral part of the award-winning Spinal Education Awareness Team (SEAT). As a foundation presenter when the program began, Wayne has volunteered his time and passion to SEAT, speaking to almost 245,000 people, mostly students, in that time – a significant achievement unrivalled by many volunteers.
In total, almost 1.3 million children have seen a SEAT presentation since 1987, meaning Wayne has personally seen around one-fifth of all the students inspired by our program. Wayne has shared his own experience about the importance of road safety and connected with children of all ages from every corner of Queensland. He has presented the SEAT program more than 1,000 times – equating to tens of thousands of voluntary hours speaking, travelling and educating children with the ultimate aim of inspiring them to practice safe behaviour, especially on our roads, and prevent them from sustaining a spinal cord injury. Wayne’s unwavering service to educating the community stems from his own experience of sustaining a spinal cord injury 25 years ago. Riding his motorbike on the way home from his work with the Army, Wayne was hit by a car. The driver did not stop. From that moment on, Wayne has had to use a wheelchair, which was a major life change for the young married man whose children were still young at the time of the accident. “If I can save just one child from a lifetime using a wheelchair, then all of these presentations and hours of sharing my story have been worthwhile,” Wayne said.
Queensland Road Safety Award – Community
RYDA Youth Drive Awareness Program – RYDA Australia
Over 30% of fatalities on Queensland roads in 2007 involved a young driver or motorcyclist. The RYDA Program is a road safety education program aimed at equipping young people with the knowledge to stay safe on Australian roads.
RYDA focuses on attitude and awareness of young people as drivers and passengers, with the theme My Life – My Choices. RYDA targets young people aged 16 to 17 years old – generally Year 11 students. RYDA is a one day program held on a school day at a non-school site with students participating in six interactive sessions. Averages of 150 to 180 students attend each RYDA day. The six sessions of the program are designed to be interactive and cover topics including hazard perception, stopping distances, safe celebrating and fatigue plus Police talking about Choices and the consequences of these - all aimed at influencing the attitude of young people before they start to drive or ride in a vehicle driven by their peers.
The RYDA program was developed in consultation with road safety authorities, state departments of education and the police.
Presenters are all accredited professionals in their fields, including Drug and Alcohol Counsellors and Police Officers. Although this program is delivered by accredited professionals, it relies on Rotarian volunteers to organise each program day.
Rotary Clubs are the vital element of the RYDA Program – they are the local community contact. In particular, Rotarians organize the attendance of their local schools, source sponsorship, and on the day a team of approximately eight Rotarians coordinate the movement of students between the various sessions of the RYDA Program. The RYDA Program has only been operating in Queensland for just over 18 months with in excess of 2000 year 11 students (Mackay, Whitsundays, Sunshine Coast & Brisbane) having already participated in the program.
Motorcycle Awareness Training Education Safety Program - MATES
Fatalities of motorcyclists are significantly over-represented in the Queensland road toll. In 2007, 19 motorcyclists were killed in fatal traffic crashes on Gold Coast roads. Those crashes represented more than 44% of the 43 fatal crashes on Gold Coast roads. In response to the high number of motorcycle fatal crashes, government agencies and community members formed a partnership, seeking community engagement to address the serious and fatal motorcycle crashes in the Gold Coast region. The Gold Coast Motorcycle Safety Working Group was formed after a public forum in late 2007.
In 2008 the group changed its name to MATES (Motorcycle Awareness Training Education Safety) which reflects and aligns to the aim of the group, which is to: Devise and implement strategies to reduce the high number of motorcycle crashes and deaths occurring on roads in the South East Queensland region – and particularly on the Gold Coast.
The motto of MATES is “MATES helping mates” One of the measurable benefits of the MATES initiative has been a significant decrease in the number of motorcycle fatalities. In 2008, seven motorcyclists were killed in fatal traffic crashes on Gold Coast roads. Although there was a significant decrease in motorcycle fatal crashes in 2008 compared to 2007, those crashes still represented nearly 22% of the 32 fatal crashes on the Gold Coast. Intangible benefits have been realised through MATES active participation and involvement in various campaigns and strategies in the Gold Coast community.
MATES has contributed to motorcycle awareness, training, education and safety issues since its inception. The success of MATES is its unique approach - in that it is a community group, is ‘owned’ by the community, but works in close partnership with commercial and government agencies to achieve its objectives.
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Queensland Road Safety Award – Schools
Bikebus – Trinity Beach State School
The Bikebus program is an established interagency partnership between several departments, and the local council, which gets an entire school community excited about using active transport.
The only formalised 'ride to school' program we know of, two days a week, the Bikebus rides through the school's surrounding suburbs, collecting children enroute, teaching them vital road safety skills, and empowering them with the skills they need to survive in everyday life.
The Bikebus service is used by large numbers of children (up to 90 at a time), from Prep to year 7.
The Bikebus mobilises children, and in turn, has inspired action amongst government departments - all the while attracting plenty of interest - not only in Queensland, but internationally. The Bikebus has just won the FNQ Healthy Qld Award.
Choices – Conservatorium of Music, CQU, Mackay Campus
The CHOICES Program was developed to address the risk-taking activities of young people celebrating the completion of Year 12 in what is known as ‘Schoolies’. The project evolved from the 1999 What’s the Hassle? Program which offered a drama presentation to local high schools on alcohol, drugs, personal safety and legal penalties for infringements.
CHOICES is a drama presentation written, directed and performed by 11 students from the Conservatorium of Music at the Mackay campus of Central Queensland University. CHOICES aims to promote safety to year 12 students, particular those who intend to participate in ‘Schoolies’ celebrations. The production is taken “on the road” and delivered at all participating high schools within the Mackay Heath Service District. The primary aim of CHOICES is to inform and increase awareness of safety issues for Year 12 students planning to celebrate ‘Schoolies’.
The project has the added benefit of providing the opportunity to write, direct and produce a drama with a clear community service for students from Central Queensland University. As such, the key safety messages are presented in a style and medium that appeal to the target audience; ie by their peers at an important time in their life.
Queensland Road Safety Award - Innovation
BRAKE Driver Awareness Program (Distance Education Mode) – Tamara Warner
The BRAKE Driver Awareness Program was awarded the School Category in the 2007 Queensland Road Safety Awards. As with the majority of road safety educational initiatives, BRAKE required face to face facilitation for the initial programs, thereby excluding young drivers and parents/carers in rural and remote areas. The BRAKE program is also reliant on group discussion as a major component to behavioural change, thereby further excluding rural and remote young people.
Tamara Warner of the Capricornia School of Distance Education (CSDE) has adapted and developed the participant phase of the BRAKE Program so that it can be facilitated via the CSDE in distance mode as a class activity facilitated by herself, with assistance at times from the BRAKE Coordinator, Cathie Flint. Students are able to undertake this program via CSDE Eluminate and Blackboard, including group activities and discussion. Further facilitation, reinforcement and revision is conducted face-to-face during residential school.
The parents program is conducted during the required CSDE parent residential program, or on home visits by Tamara. The advantages of this initiative are rural and remote young drivers, arguably overrepresented in crash statistics, can avail themselves of evidence and research based award winning program. In some ways this methodology may provide a strong personal focus for each participant.
To date over 30 rural and remote students have undertaken the program and it is proving popular with both students and parents. One student who undertook the course last year has returned to undertake the course again and is assisting Tamara with other students.
Queensland Road Safety Award – Industry and Business
Be Smart, Be Safe, Be Cool – Caboolture Bus Lines
The “Be Smart, Be Cool, Travel Safe” program is a specially designed bus and road safety program for Grade 4 students. The program is held at the Caboolture Bus Lines depot which is transformed into a secure learning environment dedicated to educating students on issues relating to safe bus and road travel.
Each class that attends participates in a 90- minute session, with drivers playing a pivotal role in the program; guiding students through each of the 8 interactive learning stations. The program has been developed by Caboolture Bus Lines with support from the Department of Education and Training and Queensland Transport and is provided to schools and students at no cost.
The primary aims and objectives of the “Be Smart, Be Cool, Travel Safe” program are; (1) to demonstrate to students, the skills and thought processes required to enable them to be a safe traveller on buses and to adopt road safety strategies. (2) to enable students to be aware of the consequences of their actions and how this can have an impact on their safety. (3) to empower the students to become safe travellers, providing them with skills that they can take with them into adult life.
The program is
- Dynamic - in the way it is delivered. It exchanges a classroom for a real working bus depot with hands on interaction at each of the 8 learning stations.
- Builds relationships - with students, drivers, teachers, schools, principals and the community.
- Educational – the students become aware of the importance of being a safe bus and road user, providing them with invaluable life skills.
- Portable – Caboolture Bus Lines is making the program freely available to other communities (through their local bus operators), provided that it is delivered on a ‘not for profit’ basis.
Queensland Road Safety Award – Local Government
SMART Motorcycle Rider Training – Gold Coast City Council
SMART has 24 training rides from March to September over 12 weekends operating on Saturdays and Sundays at a subsidised cost of $45 making it affordable for everyone to attend. Every participant receives a complimentary polo shirt for attending as part of the $45 fee.
A maximum of 24 riders per day are divided into small groups between 4 trainers. The trainers have the opportunity to give one on one training, feedback, discussion and riding techniques advice to each rider. The day starts at 9am with a 90 minute tutorial focusing on rider behaviour and attitude and discusses the objectives of the day. The rest of the day is out on the road, riding for 40mins with a 10min debrief, for each training leg of the course, then finishing at 4pm. The rides are on hinterland roads where the fatalities and crashes were occurring.
SMART was launched on 19th January 2007 at Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast by the program’s patron 5 times Moto GP World Champion motorcyclists Mick Doohan who continues to keenly support the program. Honda Australia Rider Training became the service provider to undertake the training.
SMART is now coming to the close of its 3rd year of operation and will continue in March 2010. It has trained 1392 motorcyclists so far and continues to benefit motorcyclists of all experience levels, riding all types of motorcycles and scooters, by providing affordable and professional training.
Queensland Road Safety Award – State Government
Overseas Motorist Road Awareness Program - Senior Constable Andrew Plumb
Mundubbera is a small rural community with a population of around 2900 people. This community's main industry is citrus production. During the fruit harvest, which usually runs between February and July each year, the population of the township doubles with a large influx of backpackers and tourists who follow the fruit harvest seeking employment.
Over the past few years a large number of persons from overseas, in particular from Korea, have attended the township of Mundubbera to gain employment during the fruit harvest season. Unfortunately, these people were heavily over represented in being involved in motor vehicle crashes on rural roads in Mundubbera.
It was identified that the majority of crashes involving Korean drivers resulted due to a lack of education on driving rules, a lack of awareness and understanding of local driving conditions, and a lack of basic understanding of the importance of road safety. The high incidence of Koreans being involved in motor vehicle crashes in 07/08 put an increased work load onto local emergency services.
In 2009 the Mundubbera Police, headed by Senior Constable Plumb, took action to improve the road safety awareness of all motorists in the local community, with emphasis targeting Korean and overseas drivers. This involved going beyond mere traffic enforcement, and resulted in developing strategies with local stakeholders to create a better understanding and to educate motorists, particularly Korean tourists on road safety. This initiative has exceeded initial expectations with a 100% reduction in motor vehicle crashes involving Korean drivers in the Mundubbera community.
Also key collaboration with local businesses including local caravan park owner who provides bus transport to and from caravan park for seasonal workers.
Share My Story – Department of Transport and Main Roads
The Share My Story road safety campaign—launched on 23 January this year—has been hugely successful. The main feature of Share My Story is a social networking website which illustrates the emotional and physical impact of crashes through the voice of everyday Queenslanders. This website provides a portal for users to share their personal stories and show others that the impact of a road crash has profound ongoing effects for families, friends, emergency workers and the entire Queensland community. It was promoted via a range of marketing channels including online, television and print advertising, electronic direct mail and public relations. The campaign had a core target audience of males aged 18-35 years—the primary victims of road trauma—along with people they are most often influenced by (mates, girlfriends, parents, etc).
Using a range of online and offline methods the measurable objectives of the marketing campaign were to:
- Reach a 70% level of awareness and recall among the target audience of the Share My Story recruitment campaign.
- Through tracking media during the three months of the Share My Story campaign, to achieve at least 70% positive media coverage of all Queensland media tracked.
- Actively support and engage in the campaign by visitation to the website to share and discover stories.
In particular the first month targets were set to achieve 100 story submissions, 10 000 visits and 1000 supporters of the cause.
The communication objectives set for the campaign were to:- Increase awareness of unsafe road use behaviours and possible consequences of such behaviours.
- Have risk-taking road users take responsibility for their behaviour on the road.
- Personalise and heighten community belief that any death on the roads is a tragedy and preventable.
- Encourage people to visit the site via piquing their interest across a range of online and offline media, and think about the road toll in less numerical and more human terms.
Roadwork Safety Campaign – Department of Transport and Main Roads
Ensuring Queensland roads are safe is the Department of Transport and Main Roads number one priority in planning, providing and managing Queensland’s state-controlled road network. Road user safety, community safety along road corridors and the safety of workers at roadwork sites are all elements of the department’s commitment to safety.
Few worksites present as many risks as do roadworks. On any given day hundreds of roadworkers are doing their job, building a better road system for Queensland. Day and night in urban areas, streams of traffic pass close to workers undertaking their roles, often in hot and testing conditions.
In remote locations, workers have little protection from large freight vehicles. Often only a plastic water-filled barrier or safety cone separates workers from moving traffic.
In 2005 the department commenced a five-year workplace health and safety advertising campaign with two objectives:
1. Raise awareness of safety at roadworks; and
2. Influence driver behaviour at roadworks.
Following two years of focusing on raising awareness in the mass media, from 2008 the campaign focuses on influencing driver behaviour. The campaign is part of a broader program of safety initiatives across the department to enhance the safety of roadworkers and road users.
The campaign’s tag line “Please slow down – roadwork safety is your responsibility too” reinforces that safety is everyone’s responsibility (roadworkers and road users).
Existing road safety strategies at the state and national level have traditionally funded the Fatal 4 as key road safety initiatives, and have not focused on or funded workplace health and safety initiatives at roadworks.
For further information on the Queensland Road Safety Awards please contact the Marketing and Events Officer on 07 3138 4568 or email marketing.carrsq@qut.edu.au.
