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Revamp for road safety group

Students Against Dangerous Driving embraces new name as it refreshes approach to trying to cut road toll.
Posted on 02 March, 2023
Revamp for road safety group

A youth-led road safety organisation has unveiled a new look and a fresh approach to helping support young New Zealanders using the nation’s roads.

Students Against Dangerous Driving is now going under the title Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD and has created a new logo as it seeks to address issues around the increasing road toll.

Donna Govorko, general manager, says it has also selected four new aspirations to better represent the road safety issues rangatahi face every day and empower young New Zealanders to help reduce risk and prevent losses on our roads.

The new aspirations are:

• Safe road users – we make safe decisions both before we start our journey and while we are on the road

• Sharing our roads – we understand we are all part of a collective and act in a safe way to protect ourselves and other road users

• Safe vehicles – we ensure our vehicles are always safe and roadworthy

• Driver licence journey – we adhere to our licence restrictions for ourselves and for others.

She adds the changes aim to empower young Kiwis to lead from the front when it comes to tackling road safety matters and to widen the appeal of Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD.

“We are privileged to welcome thousands of dedicated and passionate young people every year to our family,” explains Govorko, pictured. 

“They contribute tirelessly to make a difference to the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads and this refresh is about making it easier for them and giving them more confidence to get out and champion road safety.

“Our road toll affects all communities and the ripples of a loss of life from a crash impacts us all in some way. 

“Everyone needs to play their part to reverse the upward trend we’re seeing, and we’ve been working to better understand how we can address community needs and provide new messaging capable of reaching those that traditional methods don’t.”

She says staff at the advocacy group have reflected on a range of feedback and consultation with rangatahi has been crucial in developing an approach that “is a better fit to modern Aotearoa”.

As part of this consultation, a new name “Kaitiaki o Ara” was gifted to SADD last year. Govorko says the title better demonstrates the contemporary purpose behind its role, which is being “guardians of the road”.

“Participant rangatahi take their guardianship role seriously and with our new name and approach, now have new tools and guidance available to help them achieve the challenging goal of reducing the climbing levels of friends and whānau who are killed or injured,” she notes.

For further information on Kaitiaki o Ara/SADD, visit sadd.org.nz