The RAC has released a new children’s storybook which confronts road safety issues that occur nearly every day in the Wheatbelt.
Written and designed by Perth teacher and artist, Sean Avery, ‘My Family, The Elephant and Me’ follows a Wheatbelt family on a road trip and has a central message at its heart; ‘we travel safe or not at all’.
The book will be delivered free of charge to all primary school students across the Wheatbelt over the next six months.
‘My Family, The Elephant and Me’ was launched at Dowerin District High School on Friday February 16, with the help of RAC General Manager Corporate Affairs, Will Golsby and local police.
Will Golsby, said the storybook was the next phase of RAC’s Elephant in the Wheatbelt campaign, a regional road safety initiative aimed at raising awareness of the Wheatbelt’s poor road safety record.
“The Elephant in the Wheatbelt project started a long-overdue discussion about the devastating impacts of road trauma and we want to make sure it remains a continued reminder of road safety,” Mr Golsby said.
“Whether around the dinner table, at a backyard BBQ, or during the weekly shop, our hope is this book will inspire important conversations about road safety and will sit firmly in the hearts and minds of Wheatbelt residents for generations to come.”
Coinciding with the book deliveries, and following strong community interest, RAC has also commissioned six artists to paint unique elephant murals in towns across the region.
“We hope these storybooks and mural installations will help spread the elephant’s message, because there is an elephant in everyone’s community and people of every age have the power to help improve road safety in their region.”
The Elephant in the Wheatbelt, launched in 2014, is a road safety campaign which aims to highlight the regions unacceptable road safety record, encourage residents to take ownership of it, change attitudes, and help reduce fatalities in the area.
The Elephant is a life-sized sculpture made out of seven wrecked cars.
It symbolises the ‘elephant in the room’ and the silence that surrounds road trauma in the region.
In 2015 the Elephant was placed at a number of Wheatbelt towns, unbranded and unannounced.
Later in the year, The Elephant visited events, shows and WA landmarks, including Parliament House, to start a conversation with Wheatbelt residents about road safety and how it affects their community.
According to the WA Road Safety Commission 20 people were killed on Wheatbelt roads in 2017 and 91 people were killed on WA’s regional roads.
