Tales tell of tragedy

“IF YOU don’t like it… there’s the door.”
CFA member Robert Mace was about to deliver a reality check to a room full of teenage drivers, and learners at Coldstream fire station – and he wasn’t pulling any punches.
As the PowerPoint clicks in he provides the dialogue.
“Pole one… car nil!
“See the skid marks? That’s one car – that’s the front and that’s the back.”
A video of a young man, their own age, walking like a robot, shaping his words with a slow, determined drawl is contrast with a before-video of him running and laughing down the beach.
He made the wrong choice; got in a car after a year 12 party and will spend the rest of his life in and out of hospital.
Permanent brain damage now shapes his life, and his parents’ lives.
“With head or spinal injuries your life changes,” Mr Mace says.
“No more sport, your social life changes, friends don’t come around any more, you rely totally on your parents and carers.”
It’s graphic stuff, but no-one is apologising.
Not Coldstream CFA captain John Fenton who organised the night and whose daughter is among the 30 or so young people crammed, some with their parents, into the fire station meeting room. Not the CFA and SES volunteers standing at the back of the room who have held the hands of horribly injured victims as they wait for the paramedics to arrive, and cut bodies from cars which no longer resemble anything except twisted metal and glass.
In fact, Mr Mace, who spent six years on Dandenong CFA rescue, started gently.
Getting the young people to stand in a circle he threw a tennis ball to one of them.
They throw it around – quite capably.
Then another ball is put into the mix. And another, And another … and, not surprisingly, they can’t handle it. It’s a bit of fun.
“A tennis ball is a tennis ball, but you guys are going to be responsible for a one and a half ton vehicle, and if it is not handled properly, it can kill,” Mr Mace says.
That’s the point. The combination of lack of concentration and lack of common sense is the killer.
Alcohol and drugs, fatigue, over confidence, peer pressure and distractions all play a role.
“When you’re driving your phone has to be off – it’s the biggest distraction,” Mr Mace says.
Drinking or taking drugs and driving is obvious, but many young people succumb to peer group pressure and become statistics.
“You have the choice to get in a car if someone has been drinking. Don’t.
“Don’t put up with speeding, or encourage it. If you’re in that situation just say slow down, I’m going to puke.
“You make the choices, and you wear the consequences,” he said.
For John Fenton, if one person gets the message, it’s a win.
“Take the information you have heard here tonight on board, because it is real,” he said.
“If you leave here tonight saying ‘shit, this is what I have to be aware of’, that would be a great outcome for you, for your family and for us.”