Ian Radford of U Turn The Wheel

Ian Radford ensures the school curriculum gives young drivers
the best chance of safe road use through U Turn The Wheel.

For Ian Radford, the benefits of the high school driving instruction program U Turn The Wheel are as manifest as they are essential. “As a Police Officer of 38 years’ experience I was acutely aware of the need to educate and inform young people of driving age of the pitfalls that could be presented to them in their youth, of the dangers they might encounter and of the consequences of their actions to themselves and others in using public roadways,” says the former Scientific Investigator for the Road Crash Investigation team. “I have witnessed the distress and devastation that befalls victims and perpetrators of road trauma.”

U Turn The Wheel was pioneered by the Rotary Club of Moss Vale and adopted by its sister organisation in Goulburn in 1999. Mr Radford, along with then Club President Carol James, found the project worthy of implementation. “Together we organised the local police and ambulance services, Southern Area Health and community sources to develop a comprehensive program encouraging young people about to become licensed drivers to become aware of their responsibilities to themselves and other road users,” says Mr Radford, adding, “All secondary high schools were approached and enthusiastically agreed to support the project.”

Since ’99, regional secondary schools have included the two-day U Turn The Wheelcourse within the annual school curriculum, ensuring every year 11 student in the Goulburn and Crookwell region are made aware of their road use responsibilities and the effect of drugs and alcohol, peer pressure and inattention to their driving habits.

The IMB Bank Community Foundation funds, from 2010-2019, have ensured the program rollout has continued while the Rotary Club of Goulburn can fundraise for other community projects. “Not only does the funding keep this program alive and save lives on our roads, it allows the Club to work on enriching community life in other ways,” says Mr Radford.

The work of U Turn The Wheel continues to inspire Ian Radford, who is still intimately involved in the project’s operation. “The moment in which I feel most pride is when the buses unload the students at the Goulburn TAFE Campus, the students are colour grouped and are guided to their respective places of road safety enlightenment.”