Fake crash to teach youth

The accident scenario was acted out with real police officers, firefighters, ambulance officers, vehicles and equipment as part of the 15th bstreetmart event.
Founded in 2005 by Westmead Hospital nurses Julie Seggie and Stephanie Wilson, just 464 students attended the first bstreetsmart, however this year more than 22,000 teens took part from September 10-12.
Starting the event in the hope of keeping teenagers out of hospital, Ms Seggie said it could be “a real wake up call”.
“It’s wonderful to see students so engaged as they see first-hand how speeding, drink and drug driving, fatigue and distraction are all major factors in road trauma,” she said.
Offering a tiny taste of the reality of life with spinal cord injury (SCI), ParaQuad NSW’s interactive stand gave students a chance to manoeuvre a wheelchair through an obstacle course, with more than one commenting that it was “harder than it looked”.
Experiencing first-hand the ramifications of bad driving choices, the teens also tried their skills on a Safe Drive Training simulator.
ParaQuad’s marketing manager, Natalie Cooper said that while supporting people with spinal cord injuries was their “core purpose”, they also wanted to do as much as possible to help prevent those injuries in the first place.
Confirming funding for the event for another year, Roads Minister Paul Toole said sadly, six P1 or P2 drivers had been killed on NSW roads to date and there had been 20 fatalities from crashes involving a novice driver.