By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
SOMETIMES a story with a face behind it, a strong message and an intimate personal angle hits home far more than any statistic or billboard ever could.
With road safety campaigns and initiatives aimed at teenagers and P-plate drivers a constant in young people’s lives, it’s the work done by one community organisation that might be leaving the biggest mark.
Teenagers Road Accident Group (TRAG) is a team of experts, victims and family members of loved ones who have been killed on Victorian roads.
Taking their graphic and emotional accounts of road trauma to schools on the Mornington Peninsula and throughout Casey, the group pride themselves on providing students with personal stories and detailing just how many people are affected by road trauma.
Project manager Cindy Last said since changing the way they conducted presentations the group had extended their outreach across the south eastern corridor.
“We have been able to present to 214 schools and more than 2000 students in just four days,” Ms Last said.
Drivers under 25 years old account for 55 deaths and 1245 serious injuries a year according to a recent report from the Victorian Government, and on Wednesday 26 August TRAG managed to get their road safety message out to more than 300 secondary school students.
