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Road safety education - Safe Wheels

Safe Wheels - A school road safety education programme

Years 11-13

Safe Wheels is the senior secondary school programme in the Road Safe Series produced by the Police Youth Education Service. Road Safe is a co-ordinated series of programmes, providing young people with appropriate road safety skills and practises at all levels of their schooling.

Why is the programme needed?

Young people, especially young men, are in the highest risk category for road crashes. This is largely due to drinking and driving, but also to things such as excessive speed, driving without a licence, failure to wear a seatbelt, noisy passengers, unroadworthy vehicles and the inability to manage risks. Not only are drivers at risk, but so too are their passengers and other traffic. In addition to learning how to drive, young people need to develop positive attitudes and behaviour as both drivers and passengers. It is this that Safe Wheels sets out to do.

Safe Wheels aims to encourage and empower young people to develop responsible attitudes and behaviour with regard to driving and travelling in cars.

The programme is designed for students in Years 11-13, which is aged 15-18. At this time they will have more independence and so will be travelling in vehicles driven by a wide range of people, including their peers. They may have, or be in the process of getting, their driver’s licence. They may own a car.

As they work through the programme, young people, as passengers and drivers, will:

• identify factors that put them at risk on the road;
• understand their responsibilities;
• recognise the attributes of a good driver;
• be empowered to make appropriate and safe decisions.

Students are involved in a range of interactive activities covering the topics:

• crash causes and statistics
• what it means to be a road crash statistic
• identifying and managing road risks
• attributes of a good driver
• survey of local driving habits
• Peter Brock 'good driver' messages
• understanding traffic law
• the costs of owning a vehicle
• roadworthy vehicles

Safe Wheels is designed to be taught by a classroom teacher working in partnership with a trained police education officer. Each partner brings their own knowledge and experience. The police education officer is a respected member of the community. He or she is familiar with traffic laws and has practical experience of the consequences that may result if they are broken. They have experiences of road crashes. The teacher knows the students and their backgrounds and will have established a suitable environment in which these issues can be discussed.

Community people with special expertise can also assist with Safe Wheels.

The programme can be taught in a number of curriculum areas, including:

• Social Studies
• Health and Physical Well-being
• English
• Transition
• Legal Studies
• Life Skill programmes

It will also help schools to meet a number of unit standards on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework, in the fields of driver and law related education.

Students will benefit when their road safety education is reinforced at home and when their parents provide positive driver and passenger role models. A letter is provided for parents and there are opportunities throughout the programme for parents to participate. Teachers are encouraged to involve community people in lessons. These could be Police other than police education officers; mechanics, car salespeople, AA and car insurance representatives.

Schools should contact their local police education officer, through their nearest Police Station. The officer will provide the programme materials free of charge and will work with teachers to plan and teach a programme which meets the needs of a particular class. They will be involved in the evaluation process.