By KATH GANNAWAY
DEBS and funerals – the two occasions you’re most likely to see young men dressed in dark suits.
It’s one of the saddest things at the funeral of a young road crash victim – all those young men in suits and joggers, young women in the little black dress having its first serious outing, or even sadder, kept just for such an occasion.
Funerals are confronting, road death and injury are confronting, and, in part, the Teenage Road Information Program (TRIP) is confronting.
The combined Yarra Valley emergency services – CFA, SES, Police and Ambulance – will present the fourth TRIP at Woori Yallock on Wednesday night, 3 August.
The target audience is 16 to 25-year-olds and their parents.
Hillcrest CFA Captain Fiona Burns said although TRIP was primarily aimed at changing teenage driving behaviour, most adults walked away reassessing their driving behaviour.
“The program gives an in-depth insight into what happens to road crash victims and the aftermath from injuries and fatalities,” Capt Burns said.
“It is designed to be a hard-hitting presentation by the very people who attend the crash scene and know first-hand the devastation caused.”
The purpose is not to traumatise learner and P-plate drivers, but to give them a fighting chance on the roads as drivers and passengers, and to reinforce consequences.
For some, the life-changing consequence comes through the courts when they are held accountable as the driver in a fatal or serious-injury car crash.
Jule Syme is an Operations Officer with VicSES and a volunteer with Upper Yarra SES, part of a network of SES units that cover the Yarra Valley including Healesville, Lilydale and Wandin CFA Rescue.
She said the ultimate aim was to lessen the impact of young people losing their lives, and suffering life-affecting injury on Yarra Valley roads.
“We want them to be aware of the consequences from the decisions they make that could have everlasting effects on them and their families,” she said.
“It’s not just about drink driving, taking drugs or speed; it’s also about that lapse of concentration when you take your eyes off the road for even a second or two.
“You wouldn‘t drive up the road for 30 metres with your eyes closed – people would say you’re just stupid, but effectively that’s what you’re doing when you reach over to change the radio station or look at a text.”
CFA Region 13 Acting Operations manager, Don Tomkins, said it was about giving young people the information that would enable them to make informed decisions.
He said while the fact that young people were still over represented in fatal and serious injury crashes indicated some were not heeding the road safety messages; feedback on social media following previous TRIP presentations had indicated others had had their eyes opened and would change their behaviour.
As in previous years, drivers will be invited to take a pledge to change aspects of their driving behaviour.
There will also be the opportunity for people to test out ‘beer goggles’ which simulate the effect of alcohol on driving ability.
Prizes of driver education courses sponsored by local Bendigo Community Banks are also part of the night.
Healesville and District Community Bank chairman Bruce Argyle said the Healesville branch was very pleased this year to be joining Woori Yallock, Warburton and Yarra Junction bank branches who had led the way in community bank support of the TRIP program.
Mr Argyle said figures revealed that crashes caused by distractions from mobile devices had more than doubled over the past year and that young people were again disproportionately represented in crashes.
Urging parents and young people from all ends of the Valley to make the trip to Woori Yallock on 3 August, he said “There is no going back – lives are changed forever in a few seconds.”
“The TRIP program can make a real difference and the Yarra Valley’s Community Banks are proud to be associated with it, in partnership with our amazing Emergency Services.”
The 2016 Yarra Valley Teenage Road Information Program (TRIP) will be held at Heritage Funeral Homes in Healesville-Kooweerup Road, Woori Yallock, starting at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
Inquiries to yarra.valley.trip@gmail.com. For more information visit Yarra Valley TRIP on Facebook.
