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The Amy Gillett Foundation was delighted to receive Treasury's announcement, today, that it had been granted deductible gift recipient status.

Established after the tragic accident in Germany 2005, when a young driver crashed into the AIS women's cycling team, killing Amy Gillett and injuring her five team mates, the Amy Gillett Foundation is making a valuable contribution towards the national road safety strategy by ensuring these types of accidents are avoided in Australia.

"With petrol prices rising, obesity emerging as the number one health issue, traffic congestion prevalent in our capital cities and a constant concern about the effects of climate change, more and more people are taking up bike riding. But, what we don't want to see is a parallel increase in serious injuries or deaths," says Chairman Duncan Murray.

With bike sales outnumbering cars - Australians bought over 1.3 million bikes last year - and an average of 35 deaths and 2,500 serious injuries involving cyclists each year, the majority involving a motor vehicle, the Foundation's road safety messages are becoming increasingly important. Tax deductibility will enable the Foundation to pursue programs in the areas of research, education and public awareness about the responsibilities cyclists and motorists have when using the road, in an effort to reduce the incidents of death and injury caused by the interaction between cyclists and motorists.

AGF Ambassador, David Moffatt, Group Managing Director, Consumer Marketing & Channels with Telstra also welcomed this decision. "This opens up funding, of critical initiatives, to the corporate sector."

Also confirming its support was the Metropolitan Ambulance Service. Stuart Hill, paramedic, said "On a regular basis, we deal with injuries and sometimes fatalities, which are the result of cars and bicycles colliding. The Amy Gillett Foundation is to be congratulated for its work in reducing this road trauma and ensuring less people are being injured, or worse, killed on our roads."

Funds raised will be directed to programs such as Road-Right, a program that aims to increase the knowledge and skills of learner drivers about the car/bicycle interaction on our roads, and enable more ground breaking research to commence to better understand the issues surrounding collisions between cars and bicycles.