Young Drivers Expo prepares future drivers for brutal reality

Every crash has an intense ripple effect on a countless number of lives: family, friends, and communities.

That's the message first responders and crash survivors are trying to convey to students at the 2023 Young Drivers Expo this week.

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More than 1400 students are expected to attend over the New England event's four days from Tuesday, 29 August to Friday, 1 September 2023 in Tamworth.

Students come each year from Tenterfield, Armidale, Quirindi, Scone, Gunnedah, Uralla, Walcha and Wee Waa to see the demonstrations and hear testimonials from crash survivors.

"Drivers are still affected five, six years down the track from their incident. It impacts their families, their friends families, their whole town. One of our guest speakers is a young man who spent time in prison as a result of choices he made. We don't want other young people to go through those things," NSW Ambulance Inspector Brian Larkin said.

The annual expo at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre (TRECC) gives students the experience of surviving a life-changing motor vehicle accident without having to suffer it themselves.

The event uses simulated driving scenarios, vehicle demonstrations, and guest speakers who have survived on-road crashes to get the region's young people to think twice before making mistakes like speeding or driving while intoxicated.

The centre point of the expo was a road crash scenario, based on true events, in which an intoxicated young driver goes to pick up a couple of mates for a party, crashes the car, and ending the night with the driver in cuffs, one passenger in an ambulance, and one passenger in the morgue.

"We try to make the road crash scenario as realistic as possible, but in reality it's 100 times worse," Mr Larkin said.

Organisers and teachers said the annual event has a measurable impact on the kids, giving them real-world experience without the danger.

"A lot of them probably wouldn't get that understanding unless they were involved in a situation like that themselves, so it's good they get to see it in a safe environment," Tamworth High PE Teacher Bryan Warren said.

The annual expo, now in its 27^th year, is run by off-duty police, ambos, and firies volunteering their free time to safeguard the region's youth.

"For the kids, a lot of it is an eye-opener. There's a lot they know already, but to see it and hear it from the experts is one of the big takeaways, rather than us as teachers," McCarthy Catholic College PE Teacher Steph Halpin said.

More than 1400 students are expected to attend over the event's four days from Tuesday, 29 August to Friday, 1 September 2023.

Students come each year from Tamworth, Armidale, Quirindi, Scone, Gunnedah, Tenterfield, Uralla, Walcha and Wee Waa to see the demonstrations and hear testimonials from crash survivors.

"I was silly enough to get on the back of a motorbike with somebody who'd been drinking, and as a consequence I was airlifted, and while flying I died three times, and ended up in a coma for four months and in hospital for two years," local crash survivor Andrew Thomas said.

Mr Thomas was 23 years old at the time of the motorcycle crash, and more than 37 years later he says the brain trauma he suffered still affects him to this day.

"I was no longer capable of being in the army reserve, which was a huge deal to me, and it took my head a good ten years to fix itself ... I still haven't been able to hold down a full-time job, and my short-term memory isn't the best," Mr Thomas said.

"If [the expo] stops one young person from drink driving, it's all worth it."

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