Students remember young lost on roads

NOT SADD TO BE SOBER: North Island SADD school support officer Libby Gold with Wairarapa College students Samantha Wilkinson (left) and Sarah Riley, both 16. PHOTOS/LYNDA FERINGA

Wairarapa teens gathered to remember their peers gone too soon at the wheel.

Student representatives from Students Against Dangerous Driving Wairarapa (SADD) participated in a balloon release at Queen Elizabeth Park on Monday afternoon in memory of young people killed on New Zealand roads.

Nationally, from 2012 to 2013, 127 people aged 15 to 24 were killed on the road - with eight fatal road crashes involving this age group in Wairarapa since January 2013.

In a simple tribute to their fellow young drivers, the SADD students released 100 helium balloons.

The balloon release was organised as part of Remember September, the National SADD awareness month, for which students are organising a range of events to promote safe driving behaviours and generate conversations about road safety.

Events include student-teacher debates, themed scavenger hunts, student written plays and skits, seminars with guest speakers, short films, billboard design competitions and flash-mobs.

As well as the memorial balloon release, SADD Wairarapa students celebrated Remember September by hosting an alcohol-free, "Fantasy and Fiction" themed disco at The Spot Youth Centre, to promote safe driving and responsible socialising.

This year, all Wairarapa secondary schools are involved with SADD, which has widened its focus to target the highest risk areas for youth - such as drunk driving, speeding, distractions and general risky driving.

Nationwide, road crashes are the single largest killer of 15 to 24-year-olds - claiming, on average 60 young lives per year and injuring around 3000.

In 2011, New Zealand had the highest road death rate in the OECD for 15 to 17-year-olds. SADD has been active in secondary schools since 1987, and reaches an audience of around 215,000 young people each year.