Nine schools in Melbourne’s north have asked their year 11 students to take part in a driving program that teaches teenagers to avoid risky situations on the road.
The Fit2Drive program, now in its 13th year, was revised and relaunched last year to engage more secondary schools, hone in on young people as passengers and link more with VCE.
Principals from Ilim College, Gladstone Park Secondary College, Lalor North Secondary College, Roxburgh College, Hume Central Secondary College, Sunbury College, Sirius College, Aitken College and Mt Ridley P-12 College have all signed up for a half-day with the Fit2Drive Foundation.
The program teaches students aged 16 – 17 how to positively influence friends considering drink-driving, speeding or driving dangerously.
Ilim College will take part in the program for the first time at a workshop on June 16. Vice-principal Suleyman Kor said about 80 year 11 students would attend.
“We want to raise awareness of the dangers and risks they’re taking when they get behind a steering wheel.”
Lalor North College’s student welfare officer, Tamara Howlett, signed the school up for the Fit2Drive program years ago. Her college now has senior students taking part in programs to reduce youth road trauma. “It’s a real eye opener for them when the police and ambulance present real-life case studies,” she said.
Lexi Cottee
