AS a mother of two children, one of whom has his Learners and the other a few years away, I fear what may happen to them out on the roads.
As a parent I know the feeling of watching another family lose their child and hope to God that I do not ever receive that knock on the door with the news of an accident and/or death.
I was once a young person who did burnouts, sped and drove recklessly without a care in the world. What I didn’t realise then was that I could have hurt someone, or worse, killed someone’s loved one, not to mention myself, and it could have been my parents getting the knock at the door.
The number of accidents around our shire is shocking as it is, but then add the current Victorian road toll. There’s a cocktail of people in the age range, however I notice that most of these are our youth or the world’s future stars, fathers and mothers, with no hope of now achieving their dreams and goals. Gone in a flash.
Then there is the aftermath – the knock on the door for the unsuspecting family, the funeral and the fact that this loved one will never come back.
We see young adults en masse going to funerals of friends taken by road tragedies with tears and hearts pouring, yet they get into the car and forget about it all (not all of them forget).
I wonder if any of this registers with our youth at all when weekend after weekend we hear of yet another death on the road, another family thrown into despair. When will the adults, youths and drivers on the road just say that’s enough and help stamp it out?
Why call the local police for someone doing the wrong thing on the road and then not follow through and stand your ground? The police can’t do it all – it’s a community matter and we as parents should help the police.
Make the report, make the statement and if required, stand up in court. Come on, stop complaining, stand up and save a life.
I would finally like to say to all the parents out there that if your child goes out anywhere, always give them the opportunity to call you to pick them up, even if they are drunk. You might just be saving their life.
I as a parent would rather get a phone call from my child asking for me to get them than a knock on the door from the police.
Sergeant Nigel Atkins, keep up the great work, some of us in the community care enough to stand up and speak out. I stand by you in your fight for a safer community and to save the lives of other humans where I can.
Touched by recent events on our local roads, last week’s Gazette front page did it for me are a parent. Brain matter on the windscreen – keep up the graphic explanations, it does embed in people’s minds.
Maybe putting horrific photos in the paper with families’ consent may be the way to go to get it across harder and hit home.
I understand the implications of graphic pictures with regards to young children and the impressions this may cause so finally, I would like to say get out into the schools, bring compulsory driver education classes, bring in accident survivors with limbs missing.
Most of all, support your community. Don’t just complain, stand up, do something and speak up.
Name and address supplied
