By Ewen McRae
Road safety was front and centre at Staughton College last week, with a group of year 12 students taking in a presentation to help their driving future.
The interactive VicRoads program Looking After Our Mates gave about 40 students a chance to discuss road safety, encouraging them to support their friends when driving and keep each other safe.
Presenter Alan Nguyen said it was an important message to emphasise in schools as students started to gain their licences and independence.
“The presentation was largely around drink and drug driving, and also the shared responsibility of getting towards a zero road toll,” Mr Nguyen said.
“I think road safety isn’t spoken about enough in high schools … the more touch points we can get with the students, the more the message will stick with them.
“We want them to take this message with them after year 12 and on into their lives and, hopefully, they’ll be a bit more cautious on the roads.”
Mr Nguyen, a uni student, said having a peer-to-peer approach to road safety education was important.
“Getting someone who the students can relate to is really important I think,” he said.
“The students really enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it.”
