The annual Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program provides school students aged 16 and 17 with life lessons in relation to driving.

With one in 500 drivers expected to die before the age of 25, the first of an expected 500 students were yesterday given a wake up call about road safety at Mount Panorama.

Over the next two days Year 11 students will learn about stopping distances, hazard perception, safe celebrating and fatigue, hear personal stories from crash survivors and how to make the right decisions while driving.

For Kelso High students Anthony Frisby and Kurt Johns the opportunity to see how far it really does take a car to stop at high speeds is not something they will forget easily.

“I will most likely be taking plenty away from this when I get behind the wheel again,” the 17-year-old said.

“Particularly the little things you can do to try and avoid having an accident.”

Bathurst councillor and driving instructor Warren Aubin yesterday ran the stopping distances session and discovered most young drivers underestimated how far it takes a vehicle to come to a halt.

“Around 95 per cent of the students we asked are wrong when it comes to stopping distances,” he said.

“Showing them how far it takes a car to stop drums home the importance of not driving over the speed limit. Basically, other than private lessons, this forum is the best way to show students how to drive safely.”

RYDA chairman Andrew Dunshea said the forum delivers an important message in an attempt to stop more preventable deaths from occurring on the roads.

“It is vital that we get these messages across to students before they develop bad habits behind the wheel,” he said.

“The campaign of ‘Alive at 25’ is an important message as statically one in 500 young drivers will die on the roads before they reach that age.”