History

bstreetsmart, formally known as the Youth and Road Trauma Forum, was developed by the Trauma Services division of Westmead Hospital in NSW, with the aim to reduce the fatality and injury rates of young people by promoting safer driving behaviours.

RAC hosted the event in Western Australia for the first time in 2012 and since then more than 95,000 secondary school students have attended the event.

RAC bstreetsmart is for year 10 to 12 students and features a crash scene re-enactment attended by the emergency services, just as it would occur at a real crash site. The students also have the opportunity to listen to speakers who have been directly impacted by road trauma and talk with emergency services personnel.

Why we do it

As road users we expect to pay a price for using our roads, typically paid through vehicle registrations and fuel levies. For most, these are acceptable trade-offs. What is unacceptable however, is the number of lives lost or changed forever on our roads.

In 2021, WA had one of the worst road fatality rates in the country, 34.2% above the national average and 60.9% higher than the best performing state, New South Wales.

We should not accept the loss of any lives on our roads because road trauma is preventable.

The main purpose of RAC bstreetsmart is to reduce the fatality and injury rates of young West Australian people by promoting safe behaviour as drivers, riders and passengers.

Although those aged 17 - 19 account for only 3.4% of the WA population*, around 6.1% of those killed and 6.3% of those seriously injured in traffic crashes between 2016 and 2020 were in this age group. *ABS, June 2021

Objectives

  • Promote positive road safety messages
  • Demonstrate the consequences of distracted driving, speeding and drink and drug driving
  • Inform students on how to reduce risk taking behaviour

Supporting organisations

For more information contact bstreetsmart@rac.com.au