A road safety campaign created by a North Metropolitan TAFE student is now on display on digital billboard screens across Perth.
The campaign comes from social enterprise, Re:act, whose program challenged graphic design university and TAFE students all over the country to create positive road safety campaigns for their peers aged 17 to 25.
Program winner Jessie Smith will now have her work entitled The World Can Wait featured on more than 500 digital billboards. Her campaign aims to reduce the risk of mobile phone distraction in drivers.
Re:act founder and executive director Andrew Hardwick noted the importance of providing young people with a voice in road safety.
“It’s important to listen to young people and understand what they’ve got the say about road safety. They are our future communicators and the future on our roads,” he said.
“Between 17 and 25 is the most vulnerable time in people’s lives, when young people are getting out and interacting with the roads and the world in different ways.”
The statistics show young Australians are over-represented in road trauma, with one of the highest fatality and injury rates among all age groups. In 2022, the fatality rate for the age group was 75 per cent above the average.
Mr Hardwick said campaigns like these are important because they raise awareness and start the process of changing dangerous behaviour.
“We see young people who come into our program with very low awareness of road safety issues leave being advocates by the end of it. That has a big impact on those students and also their friends and families.”
Smith hopes to create change and is thrilled with her campaign.
“It’s been such an incredible experience. It’s starting a conversation. One that in some cases can be quite difficult,” she said.
“The world we live in today is so incredibly digitally connected. I wanted The World Can Wait to give young drivers the permission to disconnect from their phones, change their perception and bring awareness to how dangerous the roads can be.”
“I think there’s a lot of power in us young people, this new generation of growing adults. I’m excited for it, I think we’re change makers.”
The campaign comes at a time when deaths on West Australian roads are the highest in five years, Road Safety Commission spokesperson Charles Hayne said.
In 2022, inattention and distraction at the wheel was the second-leading suspected behavioural factor in road fatalities in Western Australia. A major contributor is the ongoing increase of mobile phone usage when driving.
Hardwick said due to the convenient access to resources like maps and music on our phones, drivers can easily become distracted.
Cameras capable of detecting illegal mobile phone usage in cars were trialed in Western Australia for a seven month period in 2022 and 2023. The trial reported 66,873 offences across the state.
Although it is a shocking statistic, Mr Hayne and the Road Safety Commission believe tests since have shown these cameras have more than halved the number of offences and will create a safer future.
The State Government has said it intends to implement this technology permanently on West Australian roads soon.