Construction materials company extends road safety program

Boral, Australia’s largest vertically integrated construction materials company, has extended its partnership with Road Safety Education (RSE) Limited, to continue delivering potentially life-saving heavy vehicle and road safety education programs for students. RSE is behind Ryda, a road safety program that has been delivered to more than 735,000 young Australians nationally. Tens of thousands of students participate each year in the Ryda school programs, in which they learn the behaviours, habits and tools to stay safe on roads as both drivers and passengers.

Input was provided by Boral to develop a Ryda topic that sees students investigate the challenges faced by heavy vehicle drivers and how to predict any actions they may need to take to accommodate them. Understanding the risks and considerations when sharing the road with trucks is part of the workshops provided to students, with heavy vehicles available to be present at the workshops. A Boral driver is available to talk with participating students, with those participating also able to sit in the truck’s cabin — to learn first-hand about the risk factors, such as truck blind spots and stopping distances.

“We are proud to be a longstanding partner of RSE and the Ryda program. Through the various programs we have helped to deliver, we have seen first-hand the engagement and benefits students have had in talking to Boral drivers and learning about the trucks and heavy vehicles and, more importantly, how they can make safe choices around them,” Asphalt Executive General Manager Richard Pearson said. “As one of the largest suppliers of construction materials in Australia, we have a large heavy vehicle footprint — about 3500 heavy vehicles — and are on the road every day delivering to customers. We are committed to better educating the next generation of drivers and passengers with whom we share the road.”