More professionals trained to install child car seats, driving assistance for disadvantaged learners and a safe bike riding program are among the 41 projects to receive grants under the Newman Government’s Road Safety Action Plan.
$850,000 in Community Road Safety Grants have been allocated to local groups and councils in the first round.
Revitalising front line services and making our roads safer is a whole-of-community effort and it’s great that local Queensland groups have come forward with ideas to reduce the road toll.
I believe generating innovative local ideas will be critical to improving road safety and these grants let government, business and the community work together to target road safety issues in their area.
The grants program is one of 60 action items identified as part of the two-year Road Safety Action Plan announced in this year’s budget.
Among the 41 initiatives receiving grants are:
- Queensland PCYC helping disadvantaged youth obtain their driver licence through a volunteer driver mentor program
- North Queensland Cowboys will deliver bike safety training for children aged 8-12
- BRAKE Driver Awareness to develop a website for young people with fun activities to reinforce road safety, and online teacher and student learning activities.
- Trivia road signs on the New England and Cunningham highways to keep drivers’ minds alert and active while travelling
I congratulate Kidsafe on its successful submission for $120,000 toward better installation of child car seats and education material for parents.
Kidsafe will introduce training for professionals such as midwives, police officers and child service workers to check and help properly install seats, and also directly target parents with education materials.
Every parent should be aware of the dangers if a seat is incorrectly installed and it’s great to see a community organisation prepared to deliver this.
A full list of grant recipients is available at www.tmr.qld.gov.au/roadsafetygrants. A second round of road safety grants for non-profit and local government groups will open in February 2014.