Grieving parents tackle teen toll

THE parents of four teenage boys killed in a car smash in 2006 have united in an attempt to stop the carnage caused by P-plate drivers.

THE parents of four teenage boys killed in a car smash in 2006 have united in an attempt to stop the carnage caused by P-plate drivers.

More training, supervision and curfews are desperately needed for inexperienced drivers, says Karen Eveleigh, the mother of Mitchell, who was 17 when he and three other boys were killed after their friend, then a 17-year-old P-plate driver, lost control on a country road in October, 2006.

Bryce Wells, 17, Corey New, 16, and Paul Morris, 16, also died that night.

The boys' parents are about to create a youth driver education facility, LADS (Learn About Driving Skills), on the NSW north coast.

With funds raised, they have already bought a 50ha site just outside Lismore and are awaiting development approval.

On Mitchell's 21st birthday recently, Mrs Eveleigh decorated his grave with "21" signs, a balloon and a card.

"It's times like this when we feel most robbed," she said.

Statistics show drivers with less than six months' experience are an "extreme" crash risk, researcher Teresa Senserrick, from the George Institute for Global Health, says.

A 17-year-old P-plate driver is four times more likely than other drivers to be in a fatal crash. Young men are most at risk, making up 263 of the 343 people aged 17 to 25 who died on the roads last year.

"If you have one passenger, you're twice as likely to crash. Two passengers, and you're four times more likely. Three, and it's eight times," Dr Senserrick said.

"Older drivers can switch off to concentrate on the task of driving, but young people are not good at switching off."

On the night of the crash, Mrs Eveleigh had called Mitchell, urging him to come home, but he replied: "Don't be stupid, Mum, I'm not going to get dead."

Robert Wells, father of Bryce, said the young driver should never have been put in that situation.

"He was too young to be named (for legal reasons), but he did an adult thing and killed four kids," Mr Wells said.

"The most important thing is driver education. It should be compulsory, but you need the facilities and we don't have them."

The crash forced a change for P-plate drivers in NSW. Between 11pm and 5am, they can no longer carry more than one passenger.

But the road toll among young people keeps rising. Last year, 54 people aged 17 to 20 lost their lives, an increase of 6.6 per cent compared with figures for 2007 to 2009.

Mrs Eveleigh said the disparity between the supervision of learner drivers and the freedom of those on P-plates was shocking.

"We let them loose on the roads with that streak of wildness in them," she said.

Mrs Eveleigh, a nurse in the emergency ward at the Lismore Base Hospital, said she had told Mitchell "all the horror stories".

"Despite all the horror stories I told him, I couldn't save him. The car, the age, the situation - I couldn't avert it," she said.

"I told him many times, 'Mitchell, when you're in Year 12, two or three of your friends will die in car accidents', and he would always say, 'Don't worry, Mum, I won't get myself in that situation.' "

Night-time curfews could help, Dr Senserrick said. In Western Australia, P-platers cannot drive between midnight and 5am, except for work or family reasons.

Preliminary results from the 18 months the curfew has been in operation show a 50 per cent reduction in serious crashes involving young people.

Until stricter laws are passed, the onus is on parents.

"Hang on to the reins for one more year, don't let them drive at night, go out with them in the car when it's raining," Dr Senserrick advises them.

The driver, who walked away from the crash in which his four friends died, was released from prison last week after serving two years.

Mrs Eveleigh says she bears him no malice.

"There was just as big a chance that there should be five graves up there, not four. No one should have to live with that," she said.