hoping they will take responsibility when driving.

The no-nonsense message was delivered by Rod Campbell, of the Road Awareness and Accident Prevention Program, to John Pirie Secondary School’s Year 10 students after visiting St Mark’s College earlier.

He gave no apologies for the graphic nature of his talk as well as the films providing hard-hitting images of the results of drink-driving.

And he encouraged students to talk about what they had learned at home with their parents as well as to think before they get behind the wheel.

One film showed a car rolling over a fence and crushing a young boy playing in the backyard.

Mr Campbell said the shock factor was “critical”. “They need to know what is going to happen if they drive dangerously,” he said.

In the four years the program has been running, road deaths of people aged between 16 and 24 have almost halved. Mr Campbell also had guest speaker and crash survivor Eli Murn talk to the

students about his experience with rehabilitation and living with brain injury.

Mr Murn spoke from notes and explained in his speech that because of his injury he sometimes suffered memory loss. He crashed his car into a tree on a rainy night.

Students heard that he spent almost three months in hospital and another nine in

rehabilitation to learn “everything” again.

The education program is run by the Metropolitan Fire Service.

Mr Campbell said fire-fighters all have nicknames – and have dubbed Mr Murn “Hero” because of his dedication to spreading awareness of the cost associated with

dangerous driving.

He said he hoped two things would come from the presentation: “Don’t drive like an idiot. It is a really dumb way to stuff up your life”.

“And don’t be in a car with someone else who drives like an idiot.”

Student Rachel Wehrmann, who can apply for her learner’s permit in October, volunteered to be in a re-enactment said the presentation was “really good”

“It really made us think,” she said.

Fellow student Georgia Neilsen, who has to wait until next year to apply for her learner’s permit, said she was taught “definitely not to take risks when driving”.

– Amy Moran