Marque provides funding and four Corolla Cross hybrids for RYDA team to use across the country.
Toyota NZ is providing a funding boost to the Road Safety Education Ltd’s Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) programme to support its goal to save lives.
RYDA provides a “whole of school” approach through workshops supported by online learning and classroom resources to high-school pupils.
There are more than 650 participating schools in Australasia and 750,000 students have attended RYDA over the past 21 years.
The three-year partnership will see Toyota NZ provide $225,000 in funding to support school education programmes and four Corolla Cross hybrids for use by the RYDA team across the country.
Andrew Davis, Toyota NZ’s vice-president of marketing, says the scheme is already making a tangible impact by contributing to a reduction in deaths and serious injuries on roads with a particular focus on rangatahi.
“Drivers aged 16 and 24 are at far greater risk of being involved in fatal or serious-injury crashes,” adds Davis, pictured.
“Over the past 10 years, around 7,000 people aged 16-24 were killed or seriously injured on our roads. The cost of crashes is huge – $4.9 million annually for New Zealand. That pales in significance to the huge human cost.”
Davis says Toyota NZ has the capability to help drive positive change for New Zealand to develop a transport ecosystem that’s safe and accessible.
“Our community is all of Aotearoa. We’ve always had deep roots in our local communities – through our Toyota stores, larger partnerships, such as our support for Paralympics NZ, and through direct community projects such as RYDA.
“We support the aspirations of the government’s Road to Zero programme. Young people are over-represented in road fatalities and such deaths impact the entire community.”
Maria Lovelock, Road Safety Education Ltd’s general manager for New Zealand, says the organisation is excited to start its work with Toyota NZ through the RYDA scheme.
“Getting behind the wheel of a car as a young driver or being a young passenger with a novice driver is said to be among the most dangerous things that a person will do,” she adds.
“Despite making up less than 12 per cent of licence holders, drivers aged 16-25 were primarily responsible for 33 per cent of crashes resulting in deaths or serious injury.
“Our goal is to eventually reach every year-12 student with RYDA and then to take it further – to go more in-depth with students and their whanau, and create even better outcomes.”
Road Safety Education Ltd’s New Zealand RYDA programme is Waka Kotahi approved and runs at more than 150 high schools.
Keyword: $225k boost for younger drivers