Campbelltown City Council and TAFE NSW – South Western Sydney Institute, Campbelltown College have joined forces to showcase a driver awareness campaign aimed at young people.

Using the talents of local graphic design and new media students, a range of bus shelter posters were created in a bid to target driving behaviours amongst young people.

Mayor of Campbelltown, Cr Aaron Rule, said that the poster project was an excellent way of engaging young people in how awareness campaigns are delivered.

“The purpose of the project was to enable young people to take a proactive role in educational campaigns to help prevent the involvement of young people in motor vehicle crashes. The driver awareness campaign is a great example of how Council is working with local educational institutions to utilise the skills of students for the greater good of the community,” Cr Rule said.

Funded by the Motor Accidents Authority’s Arrive Alive program, the driver awareness project aims to develop a campaign based around driver distraction, a contributing factor to many accidents in the Macarthur area.

“Driver distraction takes many forms, with both in-car and extra-car distractions, including peer pressure, stereos, using mobile phones while driving, even eating. If we can help prevent one crash through this project, then we have achieved a great outcome,” Cr Rule said.

Campbelltown College graphic design and digital media teacher Stefani Aloisio, who provided creative direction for students involved in the program, said she was very impressed with the concepts her students came up with.

“The bus shelter posters were created by young people for young people and allowed students to express their ideas about road safety in a creative way. We hope the posters will be effective in targeting the specific audience, whose attention can be sometimes difficult to hold,” Mrs Aloisio said.
Mrs Aloisio said she noticed a significant improvement in her own students’ beliefs about the importance of road safety since the completion of the project.

“The change in attitude amongst the students was very evident, and we hope the posters will resonate with the rest of the youth of Campbelltown,” she said.

“It was a great experience for the students, industry partnerships like this give the participants a true understanding of what it is like to work with a client and meet their needs, I know as a commercial graphic designer these skills are invaluable in the workplace.”

The posters will also help to inform P-platers about the new laws which will come into affect on 1 July. The new laws include a ban on all mobile phone usage whilst driving for L & Red P (P1) drivers, and zero tolerance for speeding offences and passenger restrictions for Red P (P1) licence holders. Full details of all restrictions are available on the RTA website www.rta.nsw.gov.au

For more information on the project, contact Council’s Youth Project Officer on 4645 4835, or for information on p-plater laws contact Council’s Road Safety Officer on 4645 4220. For more information on graphic design or digital media courses at Campbelltown College call 4620 1940.

(Edited by Kerry Bradley - original submission Sunday, 9 March 2008, 10:06 PM)