With road fatalities rising for the young, education is crucial
Young people are increasingly dying on our roads. In 2023, the number of road accident fatalities for youth aged 17 to 25 reached 71 in NSW. This is a trend that increased once again after a reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic years: 69 deaths in 2019 and 54 deaths in 2022.
To help the community prevent risky behaviour, the popular P.A.R.T.Y. (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth) program has returned following a hiatus during COVID-19.
P.A.R.T.Y. is designed to help schools, parents and especially school students to assess their behaviour and make safer decisions. It’s run at both the Royal North Shore Hospital and the newly developed simulation education centre at Hornsby Hospital.
P.A.R.T.Y. program co-ordinator Tara Sole explains that the program offers presentations by medical staff and social workers. Students are also exposed to a simulation where they see how the medical team tries to save a heavily intoxicated 17-year-old ‘patient’ after a high-speed accident. It follows her journey from the emergency room to surgery to intensive care and finally recovery.
“When they’re in the simulation, they’re a little bit shell-shocked by what they see, but it’s really having a positive impact on them,” Tara says.
“We really try to focus with the students on the ripple effects of these traumas. So it’s not just road trauma. It’s things like going to parties and becoming intoxicated and making a poor decision that has negative outcomes for these patients.”
The program also includes a presentation by trauma ambassador John Clark who was 12 when he was involved in a car accident in 2000.
“I was sitting in the backseat of the vehicle, and it was a head-on collision,” John says. “My mother passed away in the accident, and I ended up in a wheelchair because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt correctly.”
John says he joined the program to tell his story. He shares how the ‘small decision’ of not wearing a seatbelt impacted his life forever.
“Accidents don’t discriminate. They can happen to anyone. I tell my story and journey, so I don’t have to see anyone else go through what I’ve been through. They can think about the choices that they’re making and hopefully my situation doesn’t happen to them. It might not happen in a car situation. If they are going to a party, they need to think of the small choices that they’re making,” he says.
Donations to the program can be made through NSLHD’s charity partner, North Foundation on the Royal North Shore Hospital website.