Driving Change: Road Safety Campaign Boosted by Multicultural Ambassadors
2024 recorded the highest number of road deaths in the last five years. According to the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE)[1] data, 1,300 people were killed last year on Australia’s roads and 39,505 were seriously injured. To raise awareness and encourage safer driving behaviours, the Australian Government launched the ‘Safer Driving Starts with You’ road safety campaign in December 2024.
Now, the road safety campaign is being boosted by four prominent multicultural ambassadors. Bec Nguyen, Danny Mikati, Dion Woo, and Mina Kim, are representing the Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities, and playing a pivotal role in spreading vital road safety messages.
Leveraging their prominent standing in their communities, the ambassadors are using social media and translated campaign material to ensure the message reaches Australia’s diverse communities, reinforcing the importance of road safety and encouraging all Australians to make safer choices behind the wheel.
In addition, the road safety messages have also been delivered in community engagement sessions with settlement and support service organisations across Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. These sessions equipped the organisations’ staff with the information, tools and resources they need to share the road safety campaign message with their clients and community groups. Through partnering with these organisations, the campaign message is amplified, reinforcing that road safety is a collective responsibility for all road users.
The road safety campaign is designed to build on and complement the efforts of the states, territories and local governments, which focus on enforcement and specific risky driving behaviours to improve road safety.
The campaign reminds drivers, “Don’t let a car change who you are”, encouraging those behind the wheel to maintain their personal values and commitment to safety and to consider others, on and off the road.
While investments in better road infrastructure, improved vehicle safety standards and new technologies are important to safety on our roads, driver behaviour remains a critical issue.
The road safety campaign messages will reach Australians through regional print and digital platforms, multicultural ambassador posts and translated resources highlighting critical road safety behaviours. The campaign’s advertising can be seen on television, radio, billboards, service centres, social media and regional newspapers.
To learn more about the campaign and how you can be safer on the roads, visit saferdrivingstartswithyou.gov.au
In-language translated resources and information about the campaign are available in Arabic, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, and Vietnamese at saferdrivingstartswithyou.gov.au/translated
[1]Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE)
