IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005
EVALUATION OF THE RYDA
ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM
Jane Elkington, janeelkington@optusnet.com.au
Director, Jane Elkington & Associates, NSW, Australia
Paper Summary
Seventeen schools participated in an evaluation of the one day Rotary Youth Driver Awareness
(RYDA) road safety education program. Pre, post and three month follow-up surveys of over
1,200 Year 11 students generally indicated a significant immediate impact on knowledge and
attitudes, although like many singular road safety education programs most gains were lost after
three months. Surveys of 32 teachers revealed strong support for the program, with 94%
reporting that the program met the needs of the students. Telephone interviews with 8 key
informants, also showed strong support for the program, often with the recommendation for minor
adjustments within the program and additional ways to extend its potential impact. Overall, results
suggest that the program is an appropriate educational tool if the messages are repeated at
regular intervals with the help of greater school and parent involvement. The evaluation was
funded by the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW.
program is presented on an ongoing annual
basis to students in Rotary District 9680
which encompasses northern districts off
Sydney from Manly to Parramatta through to
Windsor and Wyong. With over 20,000 year
11 students within this area, it includes
almost one-third of the year 11 students in
the state. Similar road safety programs are
occurring in other areas of the state.
Introduction
In NSW from 2000-2002, young people
(aged 17-25 years) represented 12.4% of the
NSW population and yet represented 25.2%
of the road fatalities (or around 135 deaths
each year), 26.3% of the injuries due to road
crashes, and 22.7% of all hospital bed days
due to road trauma (RTA data, 2004).
This program aims to deliver practical road
safety and other information relevant to an
overall responsible approach to the driving
experience. The Year 11 program assembles
community expert Road Safety resources to
deliver integrated Road Safety Education to
young adults at the beginning of their driving
lives.
During this time 17.47 young people/100,000
young people were killed each year as a
result of road trauma compared to 8.60
people/100,000 across the entire population,
thus they are at twice the risk of dying in a
car crash than is the population as a whole
(RTA data, 2004).
Despite considerable investment on road
safety education, few comprehensive studies
have been developed that clearly draw
together the evaluation of program impact on
students’ knowledge, attitudes and skills as
well as reach and acceptability of the
program to teachers, parents and the wider
community.
The purpose of the current evaluation was to:
A) Assess the program in terms of its
perception by teachers and road safety
education specialists, and
B) Identify the impact of the program on
students’ immediate and longer-term
changes in road safety knowledge,
attitudes and behaviour.
RYDA presents a community road safety
education program focussing on attitude and
behaviour training for year 11 Students. The
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005
Methodology
Major program strengths were identified as:
the importance of the topic, the fact that it is
an excursion - thus concentrating attention
on the topic, that students get to meet
representatives of significant community
agencies, and that there are some interactive
sessions which aid learning.
There were three aspects of the evaluation:
1) A pre/post and three month follow-up
written survey of students attending the
program
2) A written survey of teachers who
attended the program
3) Telephone interviews with key
informants in Road Safety Education.
Noted program limitations were that there
were no follow-up sessions after the daylong program, and several sessions were
reported to be too much like classroom
lessons – when there should be greater
opportunities for student interaction, and
there was some variable quality in the
presentations.
Schools: 17 the 20 invited schools
participating in the RYDA program from
February - May 2004 took part in the
evaluation. The sampling process ensured
that there was a mix of Government, Catholic
and Independent schools – as well as a mix of
co-educational, all-male and all-female
schools.
Students: Study subjects were year
11students at the participating schools who
attended the RYDA program. In all, over
1,200 students returned valid surveys on each
of the three survey occasions.
Teachers: 32 teachers from 11 of the
participating
schools
returned
written
evaluation/feedback forms.
Key informants: Eight key informants
participated in the 30 minute telephone
interviews. These were five specialists in
road safety education as well as school
principles and PDHPE teachers.
The teachers’ feedback
Teachers were strongly supportive of the
program – with 91% believing it captured the
interest of the students and 94% believing it
met the needs of the students.
The strongest sessions were noted to be the
personal stories by those affected by serious
injury, the stopping distances session (where
students got in a car and experienced
braking suddenly at different speeds) and the
session conducted by police.
While 35% of respondents did not report any
weakness of the program, those that did
tended to report that the groups were too
large for some sessions, and some sessions
were too classroom-like.
Summary of Key Findings
The response to the program by key
stakeholders
Key informants showed considerable support
for the program indicating that they felt it
employed appropriate teaching approaches
for the year 11 students, that it was pitched
at the right level and is delivered at a very
appropriate time with respect to their focus
on issues to do with driving.
In all, 90% of teachers thought the day long
format was suitable, and 84% said they
would recommend the program to other
teachers (without change) and a further 14%
said they would recommend it if there were
some modifications made.
On the whole, very few schools (around 15%)
appear to have adopted road safety beyond
PDHPE/pastoral care opportunities such as
into other subject areas, as part of school
policies, assemblies, staff development days,
P&C meetings.
The program was generally believed to fit
well with existing curricula – with the
limitation that only a minority of students take
elective PDHPE where road safety is part of
the syllabus.
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005
Areas where the pattern of responses
was one of immediate gains and then
some loss of these gains were:
 Understanding that driving is a
complex task
 Knowing that neither loud music nor
winding the window down can help
fight fatigue when driving.
Impact on student knowledge, attitudes
and behaviour
The findings, based on over 1,200 responses
for each of three survey occasions showed a
very consistent pattern regarding the
program’s impact. It was clear in almost all
areas the program achieved a positive
change in knowledge and attitudes
immediately after the program’s conclusion.
Thus, the key messages were attended to
and they had a positive impact. However –
there was also a pattern of reversion to preprogram levels by the time students were
surveyed three months after they attended
the program.
Areas where gains were maintained
over three months were few across both
genders. Knowledge was retained about
the number of alcoholic drinks an L or P
plate driver can have to stay under the
legal limit – the correct response being
“zero”. It is noteworthy that this was a
focus of RTA campaign at the time and
following the RYDA program – signifying
the importance of repeating messages
over time.
Below is a typical result showing the change
in knowledge score over the three testing
occasions.
On this item, students were
asked to nominate as many different
consequences of risk taking on the road as
they could think of. A score of 1 was
assigned for each separate and correct
answer provided.
PrePost- Followtest
test
up
TOTAL
74%
92%
93%
77%
94%
96%
Girls
70%
91%
90%
Boys
Proportion that know that the maximum
no. of drinks an ‘L’ or ‘P’ plate driver can
have to stay within the legal limit is zero
Significant
knowledge gains in this area were made
immediately after the program (with close to
a 20% increase in the proportion responding
correctly) and maintained at the three month
follow-up.
PrePostFollow-up
test
test
TOTAL
2.59
2.99
2.59
2.81
3.23
2.76
Girls
2.32
2.63
2.39
Boys
Knowledge of consequences of risky
behaviour - Average scores by gender and
total
Areas where the pattern of responses
was one of immediate gains and then all
gains were lost at the three month
follow-up were:
 Being
able
to
identify
the
consequences of taking risks on the
road
 Knowledge of how long alcohol
remains in the body
 Over-confidence in their driving ability
 Understanding that fatigue can occur
on short trips
 Discomfort with being a passenger
where the driver is speeding, doing
burn-outs/doughnuts, having more
passengers than seatbelts.
There were several areas, where the impact
of the program was retained over time
significantly better by girls than by boys –
even though girls scored consistently better
than boys on almost all areas and on all
testing occasions. This “better retention”
pattern by girls than boys was observed in
the following areas:
 Being uncomfortable as a passenger
with a friend who was driving while using
a handheld mobile phone (This is also
one of very few areas where girls did not
score better than boys at the pre-test)
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005


influence of alcohol in the past eight weeks.
Being uncomfortable when the music
was loud enough in the car to drown out
conversation
Being likely to speak out to get the driver
to be safer if: i) the driver was using a
handheld mobile phone, ii) if the driver
was following too close behind another
car, and ii) if the music was too loud.
On both the pre-test and follow-up surveys,
significantly fewer girls than boys had driven
or had been driven by a driver suspected of
being under the influence of illicit drugs in the
previous 8 weeks. Three months after the
program both genders were marginally worse
– with around 2% more reporting the
undesirable behaviour. This may be linked
with a ‘maturation effect’ with the students
being more exposed to such opportunities
with time.
Long-term behaviour change was not
observed in the major areas of focus of the
program as measured by self-reported
behaviour within the previous 8 week period
(covering the pre and post program periods).
It is noteworthy that there are several
concerning statistics on the behaviour of
young people for all measurement occasions:
It is concerning that:


Reported driving or
being a passenger with
a driver suspected to be
under the influence of
alcohol
Reported driving or
being a passenger with
a driver suspected to be
under the influence of
illegal drugs
Reported having
travelled without
wearing a seatbelt on
one or more occasion
Girls
Pretest
20%
Follow
-up
18%
Boys
22%
24%
Girls
8%
9%
Boys
12%
14%




Girls
20%
22%
Boys
23%
22%
Around 20% of students reported
being in a car with a driver suspected
of being under the influence of alcohol
Around 12% of students reported
being in a car with a driver suspected
of being under the influence of illegal
drugs
Around 22% reported not wearing a
seatbelt on one or more occasion
Around 58% waited to get to a party
(at least once) before planning how to
get home
Around 45% did not tell a parent (at
least once) where they were going
Around 38% (at least once) got so
drunk they felt ill.
The RYDA program was very well received
and supported as a road safety education
program. It is considered to target young
people at the right time and deliver
appropriate road safety messages that are
clearly attended to. Like all road safety
education
programs,
however,
its
effectiveness is short-lived unless its key
messages are reinforced over time. While it
follows best-practice in the principles of
learning
for
this
age
group
and
complementing the relevant syllabus, it falls
short of best practice in road safety
education by being by-and-large a one-off
learning experience. The challenge for this
program, and others like it, is to find a way to
be more fully integrated with the school and
home environment of the young people it
targets.
Percentage of girls and boys who
reported at least once in the last 8 weeks
having taken a significant risk as a
passenger
Regarding driving or being driven by
someone under the influence of alcohol, girls
(20%) were not significantly different from
boys (22%) on the pre-test but they were
significantly lower (18%) than boys on the
three month follow-up (24%) (Fishers’ exact
test, p=0.01 2 two-tailed).
There is clearly room for behaviour change in
this area, with around one in five girls and
close to one in four boys reporting that they
had been a passenger in a vehicle where the
driver was suspected to be under the
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005

Conclusions
Speeding, diving under the influence
of alcohol and illegal drugs, and nonuse of seatbelts - particularly with
boys
 The complexity of the task of driving
and recognising that novice drivers
need to expect driving skills to take a
long while to develop fully
 Non-behavioural risk factors for road
trauma including the condition of the
car, road and weather.
6. Recommendations by teachers and key
informants for effective learning
approaches included:
 Smaller groups where possible
 Interactive learning where possible –
such as discussion/role playing
 Standardisation of content by way of
a presenters’ manual
 Take-home materials to prolong the
impact of the key messages and to
encourage students raise the topic
with their families
 Defining clearly the role of the
teachers – both in terms of discipline
on the day and preparatory and
follow-up sessions.
7. The RYDA program has brought
substantial additional resources to road
safety education for students. To
optimise the value of the Program it is
recommended that an intersectoral
approach to planning be undertaken by
RYDA, other community road safety
program planners and government
agencies responsible for education and
for road safety. These agencies should
jointly
address
the
needs
and
opportunities for this ‘at risk’ group of
road users so that their combined time,
skills and resources can be more
effectively be working together. Only
through collaborative planning can these
agencies identify strategies to overcome
current obstacles to achieving long-term
impact of road safety messages. These
obstacles
include
contradictory
messages in the media, peer pressure,
the absence of widespread strategies
involving parents to ensure messages
are reinforced at home, and the absence
of compulsory curriculum for this age
group. In short there is a need for
better integration of road safety
The following conclusions have been
developed in light of the mix of findings from
the three aspects of the evaluation: advice
from 8 key informants familiar with the
program and the principles of road safety
education, feedback from 32 teachers who
attended the program, and the measured
impact of the program on over 1,200
students by way of a pre-test, immediate and
three month follow-up surveys.
1. As a road safety education program, the
RYDA program, received strong support
from teachers and key road safety
education in that it is delivered to
complement relevant curriculum, it is
age-appropriate, and it employs effective
learning strategies.
2. Particularly well received were the
hands-on/interactive sessions, the fact
that it is an excursion focused on the one
topic, and it is presented in a
professional manner by representatives
from community agencies.
3. There are indications that the program
would be enhanced by follow-up or
“booster” sessions throughout the year to
maintain the gains that the program
achieves in the short-term.
4. Strategies should be developed to assist
schools to better integrate road safety
into the school culture including:
newsletter items to parents, use of road
safety in other curriculum areas,
coverage of relevant issues in school
assemblies, student handbook, staff
development and P& C meetings.
5. Findings from the student surveys
indicate that content areas to be
emphasised in order to address
concerning levels of risk behaviour or
attitudes are:
 Safer celebrating – planning how to
get home safely, looking after mates
and not taking unnecessary risks
 Driver distraction – such as loud
music, mobile phones, the roles and
responsibilities of passengers
 Passenger safety – including role
playing of assertive behaviour to
achieve
greater
safety
as
a
passenger
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005
Haworth, N., Kowaldo, N. & Tingvall,
C. (2000) Evaluation of pre-driver
education
program.
Monash
University Accident Research Centre
– Report # 167.
within the school, parent and local
communities with regard to novice
drivers and their passengers.
Acknowledgments
Irwin, C.E. & Millstein, S.G. (1986)
Biopsychosocial correlates of risktaking
behaviours
during
adolescence, Journal of Adolescent
Health Care, 7, pp. 82S-96S.
The evaluation was funded by the Motor
Accidents Authority. The contribution of the
17 participating schools, their principals,
teachers
and
students
is
gratefully
acknowledged. The RYDA program is made
possible by the significant contribution of
Rotary.
NSW Health: The Health of the
people of New South Wales - Report
of the Chief Health Officer Sydney:
Available
at:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/publichealth/chorep/toc/choindex.htm.
Accessed March 25, 2003).
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IPWEA NSW Division Annual Conference 2005
Author Biography
For the past eight years Dr Jane Elkington has worked as a
consultant in injury prevention – particularly in the areas of road
safety and occupational health and safety. She has been a
member of the ministerial NSW Road Safety Taskforce since
2001, and an executive board member of YouthSafe since 1999.
A large component of her work concerns strategic planning and
evaluation in road safety at the local and statewide levels.
Postal Address:
Jane Elkington, Jane Ellkington & Associates, 26 Highlands Ave.,
Gordon, NSW 2072
Tel: (02) 9440 7587
Fax: (02) 9440 7589
Mobile: 0425 200 194
E-mail: janeelkington@optusnet.com.au
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