By Melissa Blewitt

More than 400 Year 10 students from across the Lachlan, Parkes and Forbes Shire areas witnessed the confronting reality of a serious road crash recently as the annual mock crash demonstration returned.
The demonstration was held at the new Parkes State Emergency Service Unit in Boyd Circuit as part of the NOT A STATISTIC! Youth Driver Education Program.
Eight local high schools, along with participants from the OCTEC Transition to Work programs in Parkes and Forbes, took part in the program, which includes a pre-classroom lesson, the live mock crash demonstration and a follow-up classroom session.
Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Councils’ Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer Melanie Suitor said the demonstration was designed to give young people a realistic understanding of what happens when a serious crash occurs.
“The mock crash demonstration started with a short video that set the scene about how the crash occurred and introduced the youth actors. Then the curtains opened, and the audience watched as the youth actors called ‘000’ for help. When emergency service personnel arrived, they were confronted with two severely injured trapped passengers, one dead passenger and an emotional driver,” she explained.
“The mock crash demonstration concluded with recorded victim impact statements which highlighted what life has been like for the driver, her surviving passengers and their families nine months on. The videos included point of view footage of what happened at the Police station and hospital.
“The students were all glued to the car and the actors – you could hear a pin drop. I think the message really hit home to them about the trauma involved in car crashes because it was so very realistic.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in putting this mock car crash demonstration together – it’s a real team effort and I couldn’t have done this without your support and assistance. Thanks to Westlime, Regency Medical, the McMasters, Parkes Auto Wreckers, Felton Industries, Parkes High School Counsellor and Chaplin, Red Bend Catholic College Counsellor, Lehni Milford, Lacey Ticehurst, Joshua King, Daniel Heard, Senior Constable Brett Ryan, Senior Constable Natalie Rolfe, Constable Rebekah O’Connor, Constable Lucas Bravenboer, Rebecca Medd, Mitchell Johns, Mirabella Creek, Kim Palmer, Leanne Field, Jeff Field, David Law, Matthew Hando, Jeremy Head, Gail Alchin, Caitlin Goman, Glen Morgan, Sherry Morgan, CCT Productions, Chloe Browne, Lexi Herden, Marshall Munn and Abigail Heard.”
The NOT A STATISTIC! program has been running since 2009 and, during that time, there has been a 27 per cent reduction in crashes on local roads involving young drivers aged between 17 and 25.
Follow-up classroom lessons were delivered to participating students over the following weeks.