Port Elizabeth was the destination for our third visit to South Africa to train a group of Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety. The training was a collaboration between the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa (GRSPZA), the South African Red Cross (SARCS) and sponsored by the Michelin Corporate Foundation.

In 2016 and 2017, we worked with a group of young leaders from across the Limpopo Province. This group undertook road safety actions across the province, in townships, schools and communities. This time round, GRSP worked with SARCS to select a group of young people from the Nelson Mandela University.

The training kicked off on 15th July 2019 at the Willows Red Cross Youth Center in Port Elizabeth.

Facilitators Alex Ayub from Kenya and Manpreet Darroch from the UK began the training in the signature YOURS style; upbeat and high-energy. 

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SOUTH AFRICA TRAINING

From June 25 to the 27th, the First Meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Region for Road Safety Legislators took place in Muscat, Oman. The forum reunited around 40 regional legislators and health leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss leadership, legislation and data.

For this reason, YOURS was invited to share our vision and experience in meaningful youth participation in the decision-making process of policymaking in road safety.

Raquel Barrios, Project Manager of the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, shared not only different methodologies on how to involve youth in the decision-making process but also tangible and concrete experiences where those methodologies were applied and are now having outstanding results in terms of youth empowerment and a decrease road crashes with youth.

In addition, Raquel was able to extend a formal invitation to the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, that will take place in Stockholm, Sweden on February 18, 2020. The Assembly will bring together around 200 young leaders from around the World and empower them with new skills and knowledge in road safety. It will provide an opportunity for youth to begin mapping the ways in which they can take action in their countries through advocacy and campaigning in road safety. We invited legislators and delegates from the Eastern Mediterranean region to invite youth delegations to attend the Assembly, represent their countries and actively participate in the Assembly.

A former young leader from Oman also shared his previous experience with the regional chapter of young leaders in road safety that was actively participating in developing various advocacy campaigns and activities to raise awareness in road safety.

Port Elizabeth was the destination for our third visit to South Africa to train a group of Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety. The training was a collaboration between the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa (GRSPZA), the South African Red Cross (SARCS) and sponsored by the Michelin Corporate Foundation.

In 2016 and 2017, we worked with a group of young leaders from across the Limpopo Province. This group undertook road safety actions across the province, in townships, schools and communities. This time round, GRSP worked with SARCS to select a group of young people from the Nelson Mandela University.

The training kicked off on 15th July 2019 at the Willows Red Cross Youth Center in Port Elizabeth.

Facilitators Alex Ayub from Kenya and Manpreet Darroch from the UK began the training in the signature YOURS style; upbeat and high-energy.

Over the 4 days the youth were introduced to the following topics:

Road Safety:

1. Scope of the Road Safety Problem: In the world and South Africa
2. Youth and Road Traffic Injuries
3. Distracted Driving
4. Drink and Drug Driving
5. Non-Use of Seatbelts

Skills-Based Training:

1. Facilitation Skills
2. Presentation Skills
3. Peer Education
4. Communication Skills
5. Spreading a Road Safety Message
6. Action Planning

By the end of the training, Ambassadors were able to:

1. Explain the road safety crisis facing young people globally and in their country and describe what factors put youth at risk.
2. Identify the key risk factors in road safety; distracted driving, drink and drug driving and seatbelts.
3. Demonstrate methods of influencing young people to develop a road safety culture in their communities; through peer education and campaigning.
4. Develop the essential skills to be a strong road safety ambassador; presentation skills, communication skills, creative messaging and action planning.

Action to Follow
The 15 young leaders successfully undertook the YOURS training and were highly engaged on the topics. This group represents ‘young humanitarians’ who are actively engaged in the work of the red cross in the region. As young people involved in campus activities and young leaders in their communities, the have pledged to take action across the campus over the next 14 months.

These activities include monthly events at the Nelson Mandela University focused on key road safety themes such as seatbelts, drink driving, distracted driving, speeding, fatigue and other road safety campaigns. The youth expect to reach thousands of young people through their work in the region.

New Zealand spot from Clemenger BBDO paints keeping your eyes on the road as a blissful escape from your phone. In a world where young people are constantly bombarded, digitally, when driving young people who can legally drive should use it as an opportunity to ‘switch off’ from the digital and focus exclusively on the road.

Road safety education empowers young people to get involved in the urgent work of making everyone’s journeys safer. A kōrero with Lisa Rossiter from the NZ Transport Agency. ‘New Zealand actually has a crisis on its hands,’ says Lisa Rossiter, the NZ Transport Agency’s Senior Manager, Strategic Interventions, when talking about death and serious injury rates from road crashes.

Lisa says a Safe System approach underlies these strategies. And for teachers and students with an interest in exploring road safety, she says the Safe System approach provides a lens to examine local and system-wide challenges and opportunities.

‘At its heart, Safe System thinking says that while errors are inevitable, death and serious injury is not and that all parts of our transport system need to be strengthened to make sure mistakes don’t have horrific consequences.’

Lisa says four principles are at the essence of the Safe System:

• People make mistakes
• People are vulnerable
• We need to share responsibility
• We need to strengthen all parts of the system

‘People make mistakes and sometimes these will lead to crashes. An analogy would be professional sports teams – they practise at their sport every day and yet we accept that players still make some mistakes on game day. Nobody is perfect all the time.’

‘When we say people are vulnerable, the point is that we actually need to design for humans. That is the reality. The human body has a very limited ability to withstand violent crash forces. So we need to do more to reduce crash forces to survivable levels.’

‘Shared responsibility refers to everyone involved – the designers of our transport system and its users.’

Meanwhile, strengthening all parts of the system includes roads and roadsides, speeds, vehicles and road use, so that if one part fails, other parts will still protect the people involved.

Young people can demand change
Lisa says New Zealand’s school students can challenge the status quo and demand change.

‘They can ask why there is only a dotted line of white paint separating opposing traffic doing 100km/h each way, or why doesn’t everyone wear their seatbelts.’

‘My own children tell me to slow down even if I’m not exceeding the speed limit because they think it feels unsafe to be doing 50km/h in a built-up area. And they’re right. It’s not safe, because if a pedestrian or a cyclist crosses in front of our car, that person has a much greater chance of surviving if I’m travelling at 30km/h than if I’m travelling at 50km/h.’  

Teachers and students can help change the road safety conversation by asking questions and leading the change we need to see. Lisa gives a couple of examples:

• ‘If a council consults on lowering a speed limit near their school it is great to see the students supporting the proposal.’
• ‘When Mum or Dad buy another car, it’s encouraging to hear young people saying, “make sure you buy a five-star car”. Everyone makes mistakes on the road, but five stars can be the difference between them being alive or dead after the mistake.’

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Adapted from the original article