A new documentary, to be launched via a global livestream on Thursday during Australia’s National Road Safety Week, reveals the road safety messages that resonate with young audiences and change their behaviours on our roads.
Entitled ‘Distractions’, the 35-minute documentary follows students from participating universities through the Re:act road safety behaviour change program. Re:act challenges university students to create campaigns that target road safety risks prevalent in their 18-25 year old peers.
In its fifth year in 2020, Re:act ran in Sydney at University of Technology Sydney, Swinburne University in Melbourne and, for the first time, in Brisbane at Queensland University of Technology. It also expanded internationally to the University of the Arts London. The 2020 road safety topic was distraction.
Re:act is supported by the Australian Government through the Road Safety Awareness and Enablers Fund. National Road Safety Week is also supporting the documentary launch by including it in its program of events.
Re:act founder Andrew Hardwick says the Re:act documentary focuses on one student from each of the four participating universities to show how the Re:act journey raises awareness and changes behaviour in young people.
‘Distractions’ also features interviews with Re:act program partners, including lecturers at participating universities as well as government and industry partners.
“The documentary is another significant milestone for Re:act in 2020, and it is the first time we’ve been able to produce a full length documentary to highlight students, their work and insights into how young audiences view road safety,” Andrew Hardwick said.
“The concept was to follow students from the start of the program, through their research and incorporating partner feedback into their final campaigns, to demonstrate how Re:act can increase awareness and lead to changes in young road users’ awareness and behaviours.
“The documentary reveals the insightful and creative thinking of young minds on how to communicate key road safety messaging and develop campaigns for their peer group and how to engage a hard-to-reach audience with road safety.”
In a video message recorded for the launch of the documentary, Federal Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Michael McCormack commended the Re:act program.
“This Re:act documentary gives us insight into the kind of road safety campaigns which reach out to young Australians and help keep them, and all of us, safer on and around our roads,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
