MEDIA RELEASE

RAC’s Community Education team is heading to the Gascoyne this week to educate young drivers about how to stay safe on the roads.

RAC General Manager of Corporate Affairs, Will Golsby, said it was crucial to educate teenagers who have either just got their licence or are soon to, about the importance of road safety.

“These students are our next generation of drivers and we want to ensure they have a good understanding of the consequences of bad decisions on the road,” Mr Golsby said.

YOUNG DRIVERS IN A CAR
It comes as a recent RAC Road Rules survey found 95 per cent of respondents rate their own understanding of road rules as either good or excellent, but just 26 per cent thought other motorists’ had a good or excellent grasp of the road rules.

Meanwhile, another RAC survey of young drivers aged between 17 and 21 found while 91 per cent of respondents think driving while reading or sending a text message is very risky, 55 per cent admitted doing  so.

“This is a trend we regularly see in our surveys: people think they drive better than most other motorists, yet admit to doing things like touching their phone or speeding which they know are unsafe.”


Mr Golsby said these statistics show although young drivers recognise risky behaviours on the roads, many still engage in these dangerous activities while driving.

“This shows a false belief that bad things can happen on the roads, just not to them,” Mr Golsby said.

During their trip, RAC’s Community Education team will visit both Exmouth District High School and  Carnarvon Community College. 

The school presentations are targeted toward the needs of local schools through a combination of visual, factual and interactive learning activities.

RAC’s Community Education team travels across regional WA each year and has delivered road safety messages to more than 540,000 students since 2002.

More information on the RAC Community Education team is available on the RAC website.                                                            
 
RAC Media:
0401 703 719
media@rac.com.au

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