By ALANA MITCHELSON
KOOWEERUP final-year secondary school students tried their hands at a driving simulator as part of an annual road safety program.
Now in its 10th year, Kooweerup Secondary College (KSC)’s Motorvate program teaches students road safety skills to put into practice on Victorian roads as teenagers obtain their licences.
KSC Year 12 Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning students received an information session, spent an hour completing a driving simulation and an hour driving under instruction at the Kooweerup Recreation Reserve on Thursday 23 June.
KSC Year 12 Learning Community leader Tania Miller said she had run Motorvate for many years.
“The program explores young students’ attitudes towards driving because many young drivers tend to think they know it all. Some of the cockier kids crashed their ‘simulator’ cars pretty quickly,” Ms Miller said.
“Research shows that those aged between 16 and 25 are the most likely to have an accident.
“The simulator helps the kids get used to what happens if something goes wrong. It lets them test their breaking reaction times and skid control.
“We’ve run the program for 10 years because we think it’s a really useful tool for young people as they become drivers and we would hope that none of our students become a statistic.”
The program is run as part of KSC’s VCAL senior numeracy course and work students have been undertaking on standard drinks, blood alcohol content (BAC) levels and braking, Ms Miller said.
Over the past two years, Kooweerup Bendigo Bank, Lead On and CGU Insurance have jointly funded the program, enabling students to participate free of charge.
All students who completed the program received a formal certificate of participation.
