By EMMA SUN
DANIEL van der Hoek knows the consequences of drink driving all too well.
At 18 he ploughed his car into a 14-tonne truck in Wandin eight years ago, changing his life forever.
He suffered a broken jaw, fractures to four of his thoracic vertebrae next to his spinal cord, dislocated and broken shoulder, six broken ribs, which punctured his lung and a shattered hip.
His knee was cut to the bone through his car’s dashboard, and was “hanging by a threat”.
He had only had his licence for 26 days and had a blood alcohol reading of 0.051
Now 25, Mr van der Hoek makes a conscious effort to get the message through to young drivers, and did so at the Dandenong Ranges Teenage Road Information Program (TRIP) held at Belgrave last Wednesday evening.
The program was run by local emergency service members including firefighters, police, the SES and paramedics, all of whom see first-hand the effects of road trauma, in a bid to make youths and their families more aware of how distractions could lead to serious accidents.
More than 200 attendees heard the stories of speakers Jim Waring from the Emerald SES, Ben Draffin from The Basin CFA, Detective Leading Senior Constable Wayne Reynolds from the Major Collision Investigation Unit and paramedic Josh Warren from Ambulance Victoria.
The ripple effect of road trauma was a major discussion point, with speakers highlighting that an accident would not only affect the driver and their family, but witnesses, emergency services personnel and the broader community.
Upwey Fire Brigade volunteer Peter Hall, who has been a firefighter for more than 45 years, spoke publicly for the first time about the devastation that rocked his family when his two young sons were killed in an accident in Cockatoo in 1995.
The boys, Anthony and Travis, were 15 and 13 at the time.
“Luckily, a lot of the young ones in the brigade took our daughter under their wing because it wasn’t until a number of years later that I realised she hadn’t just lost her brothers, she’d lost her mother and father as well, for quite a while,” Mr Hall said.
“The nightmares, the grief, the tears, just keep going.
“Some of the things that are very hard to put up with are things like birthdays – Travis was born on Mother’s Day, so you can imagine what that did to my wife and to me on that day.
“The reason I’ve come here tonight to tell you all this is to try and save even one family from going through what we are going through, what we still go through.”
For more information on TRIP, visit home.vicnet.net.au/~drtrip/
