THE Blue Datto Foundation is one step closer to making its driver education program a reality.
The Hawkesbury family behind the Foundation, the Vassallos, have been working towards launching a peer-based driver education program for the past two years, ever since their beloved son and brother, Philip, died aged 17 in a car accident.
The Vassallos established the Blue Datto Foundation in 2014, in memory of Philip and the blue Datsun ute he drove.
The new driver education program, called Keeping Safe, will be launched at Hawkesbury High School next month.
Bede Polding College – where Philip was a student – has also signed on.
According to Lauren Northen, Philip’s sister and community liaison for the Blue Datto Foundation, high schools in Penrith and Parramatta have also booked in.
“Our goal is to have all the high schools in the Hawkesbury doing the program,” Ms Northen told the Gazette.
Keeping Safe aims to facilitate behaviour and attitude change in young road users, in a bid to keep them safe on our roads.
The program goes for five hours, and will be delivered on-site at schools. University undergraduate students from UWS, ACU and Macquarie will lead the proceedings, as ‘near-peers’ or mentors to the year 10 students.
The program consists of small group work lead by the near-peers, as well as car-crash case studies and related discussions lead by emergency services personnel.
The near-peers recently completed their training to act as mentors in the program. The two-day seminar at the Hawkesbury Race Club was facilitated by safe driving educators Graham and Suzanne Spencer, and Kerry Montero.
“These trainers are the authors of the Blue Datto Keeping Safe program. They are world-renowned leaders in safe driver education, and have recently returned from Rio de Janeiro after speaking at a global forum on road safety,” said Ms Northen.
“Since our foundation’s launch in March 2014 we have been developing our Keeping Safe program for delivery late this year. These peer mentors are the first university students to go through our training and we are so excited to have them on board, helping us deliver vital driver education and saving lives.”
An important element built into the Keeping Safe program occurs at the end of the day, when students write a personal safety plan, make a pledge on safe driving, and present suggestions to the school executive and community representatives on how they can work together to promote a safe driving culture in the local community.
