Bridgetown vollies help learner drivers unlock Roadwise key message on Mystery Tour of Life

• St John WA Bridgetown volunteers participated alongside WA Police and Bridgetown Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service (BVFRS) in a SIMEX called ‘The Mystery Tour of Life’ on October 18.
• The simulated road crash exercise is aimed at educating Year 10 students from Bridgetown High School about the responsibilities and risks of driving and has been running since 2004.
• Statistics show 3 kilometres per hour over a speed limit will increase a risk of crash by 25 per cent, and 75 per cent of all serious crashes involve a mistake, a momentary lapse in attention or being tired.
• Sadly 17 to 19-year-olds are three times more likely to be in a crash resulting in death than older drivers.

Rural driving can have dire consequences as students from Bridgetown High School learned on October 18 during a simulated road crash exercise (SIMEX) hosted by the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes’ Roadwise committee.

St John WA’s Bridgetown sub centre volunteers participated alongside WA Police and Bridgetown Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service (BVFRS) in the SIMEX called ‘The Mystery Tour of Life’. 

The tour was developed in 2004 by then-Senior Constable Graham Chitty while he was stationed at the Bridgetown Police Station and a member of the Roadwise committee.

SJWA has participated every year in the SIMEX aimed at educating Year 10 students from Bridgetown High School about the responsibilities and risks of driving since its inception.

This year’s SIMEX scenario was a motor vehicle accident involving more than one vehicle on a local rural road, where at least one person was trapped and another dead to allow students to follow the journey of emergency response to hospital and the local morgue.

Students watched BVFRS personnel cut and remove sections of a vehicle, while the SJWA team administered first aid at the scene and transported a patient to Bridgetown Hospital’s Emergency Department, where hospital staff described the medical care given to road trauma patients. 

Students were also taken to a morgue where police described what happens to a deceased person, with further visual presentations on road accidents and the role speed, mobile phones, lack of seatbelts, fatigue, drink driving and drug driving play. 

Students were then given a presentation by a local Funeral Director about organising a funeral.

One of the speakers included a representative from volunteer-organisation Heart Hub South West, which offers counselling to people who have lost loved ones in traffic accidents, and who lost her own 20-year-old son a few years ago.

“When you look at the statistics for road safety, sadly 17 to 19-year-olds are three times more likely to be in a crash resulting in death than older drivers,” said Bridgetown sub centre chairperson Glen Norris.

“Travelling just 3 kilometres per hour over a speed limit will increase a risk of crash by 25 per cent, and 75 per cent of all serious crashes involve a mistake, a momentary lapse in attention or being tired.

“It’s important to get the key message across to young people that speed kills and it only takes a second for something to go horribly wrong.”

SJWA also has a dedicated first aid educational resource developed for learner and P-plate drivers called Click to Save. The free 30-minute online course, which has been endorsed by the Road Safety Commission, aims to equip young drivers with the tools they need to manage a first aid emergency on the road.

If you or anyone you know has been affected by a road crash, contact Road Trauma Support WA on 1300 004 814.