Info@Immanuel News 2
Smart Choices
RAP Program
On Thursday February 16, the Year 11 students experienced the Road Awareness Program (RAP), presented by firefighters from the Metropolitan Fire Service. The program was presented by Mark Haylock who has strong links to the school community and supported by one of the crews from St Marys Fire Station.
In the presentation, students were asked to assess their driving attitudes and behaviour and examined the common causes of serious road crashes. Mark exposed the group to the consequences of bad decisions and the impact of casualty crashes on families, friends and communities. The mantra of, “You get to choose the behaviour, you don’t get to choose the consequences,” was emphasised with graphic demonstrations of the consequences of poor decisions on the road.
The presentation concluded with a talk by Jason “Ozzie” Austin, a young father of two who was brutally honest about his poor driving behaviour, leading to a serious crash which paralysed him from the waist down. Jason was open about his decision-making which totally changed his life, and explained in detail what living with a spinal cord injury is like. His courage, honesty and passion had a big impact on the students.
At the end of the presentation, students received a RAP pack, containing a number of support materials and reminders. Included are Parent-Young Person Driving and Peer Group Road Safety agreements for students to discuss with key people in their lives to sign off on. We encourage all families to read and discuss these agreements with their young student drivers.
The RAP message is clear, “Concentration and Commonsense” is the key to safe driving.
