Girls High Students at 2026 RYDA Workshop
In 2025, 273 road deaths were recorded, the lowest in recent years despite population growth, marking a third consecutive year of reduction.
Despite the decrease 21% of these deaths were youth aged 15-24 years, indicating young road users die from road crashes at a much higher rate than older age groups.
A reduction shows that change is possible with safety being prioritised for high-risk young drivers. It is also important to recognise that for every fatality there are dozens of people injured, often with life-long consequences.
RYDA, Rotary Youth Driver Awareness is a programme for Year 12 Students, started by Rotary in Australia in 2001 and has been in NZ since 2007.
In Partnership with Road Safety Education our Club has financially supported the delivery of the Southern RYDA workshops for Secondary School Students in Southland for a number of years. This year we have supported the programme again to deliver 6 workshop sessions in Invercargill 11-13th May.
714 students from Central Southland College, Aurora College, Verdon College, Southland Girls High School, James Hargest College, Southland Boy High School and Frontline Training Consultancy attended the Invercargill Workshops. Our support also extended to assist Menzies College students to attend the workshops in Gore.
The workshops covered 6 topics to assist young drivers to be equipped with essential cognitive tools to better assess risk, resist distraction, avoid negative peer pressure, and make safer choices when faced with challenges on the road.
If you would like to know more about the workshops run by Road Safety Education - visit https://rse.org.nz/about-ryda/