Danish Road Safety Council head of documentation Jesper Solund spoke to Ballarat community members and road experts on Wednesday about Denmark’s 40-year-old education program which is tightly embedded within the school curriculum.

The program – called Cradle to Steering Wheel – ensures young people are informed and tested on their knowledge of road safety through their entire development – leading to an intrinsic and thorough understanding of road safety.

The Victorian government and the TAC announced an $80 million dollar investment in youth road safety education last month through the launch of the yet-to-be developed road safety centre at the Melbourne museum.

While little is known about how and when children will access the program, it is hoped at least 20,000 students will attend the centre each year where they will be exposed to hands-on technology, including driverless vehicle technology, to educate students about the risks of driving.

“It is very important that we educate our children and young people to develop social approaches and train young people to show respect,” Mr Solund said.

“We have analysed (the youth education programs) and they are very cost effective. We have had very fine results and are in the middle of developing a scientific study.” 

Ballarat City councillor Des Hudson said while school programs were in place, the bill footed by schools often made it difficult to sign schools up to the programs. 

He said only five out of a possible 12 schools in Ballarat were involved in the Fit to Drive intensive program co-run by Victoria Police. He said new funding models were being investigated.

Denmark  has had some great success, halving its road toll in two years and nearing the target of 120 fatalities by 2020. However, like Victoria it experienced a spike in deaths in 2016. 

The Danish road safety commission has set the target of 120 deaths, 1000 serious injuries and 1000 minor injuries nationwide by 2020.

The TAC aims to reduce fatalities to below 200 by 2020 and cut serious injuries by 15 per cent. 

The rigid Danish education model starts at birth. Parents are taught how to strap their children into the car appropriately.

In grade one students must pass a walking test and they have to do written and practical bicycle education in later primary school. Teenage students are the most at risk drivers - and the hardest to reach.

The Danish 360 degree program sees students exposed to a computer-simulated motor crash. They have to look at every element of the crash and determine its cause. They then have to go into the mind of the driver and work out what decision the driver made that led to the fatality, Mr Solund said.

This teaches the children the importance of decision making. Young people living with traumatic injuries from a  car crash  where they were at fault are trained to present at schools.

“They made a wrong decision,” Mr Solund said.

“They are the same age as the students and there is a good identification between the speaker and the students.

“The whole idea seems to work – they leave the classroom changed.” 

The challenge of ensuring young people were engaged with the danger of road safety lies in making schools champions of road safety, Cr Hudson said.

“Knowing those programs exist – we have to look at  how we encourage the education sector to become champions,” Cr Hudson said.

“There (is) value –  we save long term monetarily and also in terms of cost to health and the community.”