Thousands of high school students learn a road safety lesson that will stay with them forever. By Jane Misich.
To some it’s just another school excursion. They’ve heard the road safety messages before – from parents, teachers, doctors, police, actors and, most recently, driving instructors.
They’re about to hear them again, this time from Westmead Hospital’s director of trauma services, Valerie Malka.
It’s day one of the 3rd Australian Youth and Road Trauma Forum – one of the world’s largest health promotion and injury prevention events, organised by NRMA Motoring & Services in partnership with Westmead Hospital and Sydney West Area Health Service.
Over three days, almost 11,000 high school students from 110 schools across NSW and the ACT enter Acer Arena at Homebush Bay and – to their surprise – leave different kids.
As silence fills the stadium, Malka’s words ring with the experience of her work – hundreds of attempts to reassemble young bodies torn apart in crashes; success stories which are more like horror stories about long, difficult and painful recoveries and rehabilitation that can stretch on forever.
The chief executive of the Sydney West Area Health Service, Steven Boyages (a hormone specialist who knows a thing or two about the minds of young people), confirms their thoughts: Dr Malka is a hero – but they don’t want to meet her in an operating theatre.
NRMA president Alan Evans hits the stage and rolls off the numbers again.
A 17-year-old driver with a P1 licence is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver aged 26 or older.
Road crashes are the leading cause of death in the 10 to 24 age group. The World Health Organization reported last year that almost half a million people under 25 are killed in road crashes each year. Although they only count for a tenth of the population, 17 to 25-year-olds are involved in half of all speed related crashes.
Evans says there’s a good chance some of the people sitting around them won’t see their 30th birthdays. Heads turn in silence. Evans continues.
He says most of these crashes are preventable. They might not have happened but for a moment of inattention, a silly mistake that ends or changes lives.
“Car crashes may look exciting on film and television dramas, with people emerging from car wrecks a little dazed and bruised or miraculously awakening from a coma fully recovered – that’s just not the reality,” Evans says.
“Today you’ll see the cold hard reality of car crashes – it is cold – it is hard – it’s the real life tragedy that plays out on our roads every single day.”
The audience can already feel it, but it’s about to get a lot colder and a lot harder in Acer Arena.
Dr Ken Harrison – doctor, anaesthetist, medical retrieval specialist (including for NRMA CareFlight) and self-described expert in scraping bodies off roads – explains that the day is about changing young driver behaviour. He asks them to listen to a conversation that took place in a car on the Friday night before.
The lights fade. Three teenagers in a moving vehicle are talking about a party they’ve just left. Alex is driving, Claire’s in the front. Bec in the back undoes her seatbelt to show off photos on her mobile.
The driver looks for just a second. But it’s too late – they crash. The stadium is silent as the lights come back on.
The scene is a bloody wreck.
Bec lies dead in front of the smashed car. Claire is bleeding, breathing heavily and crying in pain. Alex climbs out of the mangled wreck in shock. Behind them, a motorcyclist is sprawled and bleeding as onlookers rush to the scene.
Police, ambulance, fire and rescue services and crash investigators arrive. Claire is cut from the wreck and rushed to hospital. The motorcyclist is carefully stretchered away; the dead body is covered with a sheet.
The driver is questioned, breath tested, cuffed, taken away by police.
The dead girl – their friend, someone’s daughter – is scraped off the road.
Every detail plays out before the eyes of 4000 teenagers. Dr Harrison explains each one meticulously. A video is shown of what Claire will experience when she gets to Dr Malka at the hospital.
It’s the real-life stories of road trauma victims with brain injuries that seal the deal. They’re part of the THiNK TWICE education team of the Westmead brain injury unit.
It’s a miracle Peter is alive. A seatbelt probably saved his life, but he lost his left leg below the knee, suffered multiple fractures to his right leg, and endured a twisted pelvis and a brain injury.
It’s been a long road to recovery since an acquaintance took him for a drive to show off his new car. The physical recovery was hard enough, but every day is a struggle with ongoing memory and temper issues, loss of independence and mobility, and chronic pain. Road trauma causes 70 per cent of all brain injuries.
Four years ago, Danijela had just achieved her dream and graduated from the police academy. She was celebrating with a Boxing Day trip to the beach that she’ll never remember.
Two drivers were illegally racing on the same road when one lost control of his vehicle and hit hers. The result? A broken cheekbone, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, left foot, right ankle – and a traumatic brain injury. Danijela had to learn to walk, talk and think again. She can’t return to the police force – she’s medically unfit.
As Paul is assisted up the stairs, 4000 kids look on, silent. Paul suffers double vision, right-side hemiplegia and seizures. His brain injury has also affected his ability to speak and swallow.
After a three-month coma, he woke up to a nightmare. He was told a car had hit him while he was walking with friends. The driver didn’t stop and was never found, but witnesses say he was speeding, and did not have his headlights on.
The 4000 teenagers break for lunch. In the halls of Acer Arena, they pass the pictures of music heroes who’ve played there – including Silverchair and Missy Higgins – but today these kids know they have met real heroes.
Open Road July/August 2008
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