Grieving parents call for P-platers to complete responsible driver courses
Bereaved parents are calling for young drivers to complete a mandatory responsible driving program similar to the Traffic Offenders Program as a condition of getting their license.
BEREAVED parents are calling for young drivers to complete a mandatory responsible driving program similar to the Traffic Offenders Program as a condition of getting their license.
Roger Snaith, Peter Frazer and Eve Langham have all lost children to road trauma and present the NSW Enough is Enough Traffic Offenders Programs (TOP) to encourage traffic offenders to think about the harm they have caused.
However, they believe P-platers need to complete a similar program to adopt good behaviour behind the wheel.
“There are three main causes of road deaths: speed, alcohol and fatigue and who has control over these things? The driver does. It is their choice,” Mr Snaith told The Sunday Telegraph.
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Alicia Snaith was 17 when she died at the hands of a drink driver four times over the limit.
In the two decades since, Mr Snaith has presented to the TOP that these events are predictable.
“I don’t call it an accident, it was a predictable outcome of poor driving decisions,” he said.
Mr Snaith said bad habits begin long before children even get their license.
“They are picking up habits from mum and dad like thinking it is normal to accelerate through a yellow light, or see the 60km an hour sign and notice mum or dad are doing 75 or they go to a BBQ and lunch and see that mum or dad drink drive and do it all the time,” he said.
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Associate Professor Teresa Senserrick from the University of NSW Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research said there was and increasing body of evidence that suggested young drivers with parents who model poor driving behaviours are more likely to adopt them compared to other young drivers.
American research that showed that if parents had offended, it increased the risk of their children offending by 13 per cent. If a parent has over three offences, the risk of a young driver offence increased by 38 per cent and the risk of a crash by 22 per cent.
Eve Langham lost her 15-year-old daughter Erin in a horror crash that also killed her friends Andrew Harvey, 16, and driver Shane Martin, 17, when the car, carrying six teenagers lost control and smashed into a power pole on Bargo River Road, Picton in 2002.
Mrs Langham says ‘it’s a fresh as the day it happened’ and as a presenter at the Traffic Offenders Program, she urged politicians to back the call.
“We do a similar program in schools and the change in attitude is amazing. It should be part of the licencing scheme because it will save money and lives. Just make it compulsory, it’s one to two days out of their lives. We need to gets inside the heads of young drivers because they don’t realise how fragile life is,” the 62-year-old said.
Peter Fraser’s daughter Sarah, 23, died six years ago when a truck slammed into her and the tow truck driver on the side of the Hume Highway.
The broken father shared her last words, left on his voicemail.
“Cars and trucks are speeding past just centimetres away from my car … No one is changing lanes. I am terrified that they will hit me. I rang the NRMA. Dad, please call me.”
“Everyone has the right to get home safe, we need a cultural change to look after each other,” Mr Frazer said.
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