Campaign efforts honoured

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 8

Campaign efforts honoured

By

PAM MORTON

Students active in the Students Against Driving Drunk (S.A.D.D.) campaign were presented with certificates yesterday for their services to road safety. The Honour of Knight of the Road was bestowed on Shelly Kirner, Sharon Dickie and Ana Olykan at a reception at the Christchurch City Council offices, by the Accident Compensation Corporation and the council’s co-ordinating committee for traffic safety. Secondary school pupils and representatives from road safety organisations were invited to the reception as part of road safety week, which will end on Sunday. The trio, all pupils at Hornby

High School, have been active in the S.A.D.D. campaign since it was introduced to the school in early 1988 through the school’s civics programme.

The pupils spoke at the reception on the aims of S.A.D.D. and the need for it to be established in all secondary schools. Part of the programme is based around contracts between teenagers and parents. The two parties sign an agreement, both promising hot to drive when they have been drinking or travel in a car driven by someone who has had too much to drink.

The parent agrees to pick the teenager up if .they or the person driving them home has been drink-

ing, with no questions asked. The contract is reciprocal, with the teenager also agreeing to pick up the parent if the need arises. More than 170 contracts have been signed at Hornby High School. The campaign was being taken seriously by pupils at the school, said one of the group. The chairman of the council’s traffic safety committee, Dr Morgan Fahey, said the aim of road safety was to “harden the target.” “This means we accept that accidents will occur in spite of enforcements and improved techniques, but we can lessen the impact." Dr Fahey said that was what the young people in S.A.D.D. were doing, “not only for themselves but others at risk.”