BRIEF HISTORY

Late in 1998, the 18 year old son of a Moss Vale Rotarian was killed in a road accident. For this small rural community it was one death too many and there was a combined outpouring of questions such as ‘Why so young?’ and ‘How can we prevent future such deaths?’
 
Ms Kim Davis the Road Safety Officer at Wingecarribee Shire Council, responded to the public outcry and called for help from individuals or organisations willing to address this problem and that of the disproportionate crash rate of the younger segment of the population.

The President of Moss Vale Rotary Club - Bruce Angus, director of the Australian Driver Trainers Association - Mark Simson and a bereaved mother, Marion Davis-Low, responded - the result was ‘U-Turn The Wheel’ a road safety awareness program for young people.

Rotary got behind the project, a community action group was formed and the rest is history with the result that since 1999 many thousands of young people have benefited from attending the U-Turn the Wheel programs.

Aim of the Program

Many young people believe that they are bullet proof and that accidents happen only to other people. The UTW program attempts to enlighten them of the sobering fact that crashes can occur to anyone. The program is offered to Year 11 students so as to coincide with their use of the public roads.

The aim of UTW is to present information at the time and in the format that is needed. What is essential will vary from area to area and country to country. Our challenge is to make what is presented at each program - understandable, relevant, interesting and acceptable to each group of young adults we address. The program also aims to supplement and support existing road safety education delivered as part of the school syllabus.