PEOPLE who have experienced the trauma of a road accident are encouraged to volunteer for Road Trauma Support Services Victoria\u2019s education program, promoting road safety in local communities.<\/p>\n
RTSSV volunteers present four 20-minute education sessions a year, addressing road attitudes and behaviours, and share their stories as a means of accident prevention.<\/p>\n
Seeking more of these presenters, RTSSV would like to speak to anyone who has been injured, or has had a friend or relative injured or killed in a road incident, has been first on a serious road scene, has been a witness to an accident, a driver involved in a serious incident, or was emergency services personnel at a scene.<\/p>\n
The program volunteers speak to various community groups and offenders, generating learning and subsequently creating safer road users.<\/p>\n
CEO, Bernadette Nugent said most of the service\u2019s volunteers have never publicly spoken previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide them with training and help them to prepare their talk,\u201d she said. \u201cThe talks can be in a variety of forms. Some show photos of their loved ones or how they were before the crash, others will prepare a PowerPoint presentation, while others will sit and tell their stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no right or wrong way to go about it, although we do not use shock tactics or crash scene photos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing we focus on in our programs is behaviour change. Programs are delivered to traffic offenders who have been referred as part of a police cautionary process, as a court-ordered sanction as part of sentencing, or through a lawyer\/solicitor prior to court.\u201d<\/p>\n