By JESSE GRAHAM
WINTER is coming – frosty, foggy mornings, rain and reduced visibility on the roads can often mean peril for even experienced drivers.
This year, a team of emergency services workers from around the Dandenong Ranges have put together an information program to help reduce trauma for youths on the road.
The Teenager Road Information Program (TRIP) was established to give young drivers insight into road trauma, presented by those who see it first hand in their work.
Volunteer fire-fighter at Emerald CFA and co-creator of TRIP Jody Yandle said there are many dangers on the road, particularly in the Dandenong Ranges in the wetter months.
“Getting your licence and a car or motorbike is a liberating experience for young people – we all know that, because we’ve all been there,” she said.
“But we also know that freedom comes at a cost to our community, in terms of death and injury.
“For many families, it can be an altogether brutal one.”
Speakers at the TRIP sessions will be emergency services workers who have seen the devastation of road trauma and families of road accident victims, in order to make the presentation “real”.
“Sadly, for the police, ambulance, SES and fire brigade personnel who attend road crashes, it is all too real,” Ms Yandle said.
“In small, tight-knit communities like we have in the Dandenongs, the reality is even worse as we sometimes turn up at crashes and find we know the people involved personally.”
The program has previously been run in other areas of the Yarra Ranges and will come to the hills for the first time on May 22 at Belgrave Heights Convention Auditorium.
The night will begin at 6.30pm with an emergency vehicle display, before the main presentation from 7.30-9.30pm.
For more information, email dande.ranges.trip@gmail.com or call Jody Yandle on 0412 527 497.
