Following on from last week's article about Year 11 students attending the Safer Journeys Expo, Jackson Thomson and Connor Maclaren have written their thoughts about the event as part of an English assignment, which they kindly shared with us.

Safer Journeys Report 

 By Jackson Thomson

On the 14th March there was a “safer journeys expo” at the Edgar Centre which Year 11 students from King’s, St Hilda’s and East Otago attended. The idea of this expo is to show young people the responsibility of driving a car and how one bad decision could majorly affect you, family or even innocent bystanders, for life. This was all made possible by the emergency services.

The expo was done in parts . The first part was a simulated car crash with emergency services showing us what happens at the scene of a crash from an airbag going off, to getting the passengers out of the car, to even collecting dead bodies. They completely destroyed the car with their machinery showing us how they get the badly injured patients out of the car.

The second part was when the students were split into three groups and went off to different stations to discuss different aspects of driving and the responsibilities. The first station was discussing road conditions and hazards. The second was about what can happen when you are out drinking and driving and the consequences of doing so e.g killing innocent kids on their bikes. The last station was about car safety. It showed the differences of a roll cage in race cars to the safest road car with all the airbags and safety features.

Then the students went and listened to family members of fatal car crashes and people talking about their own experiences. The students also watched a simulated funeral which was difficult for some students to watch.

The student feedback was very good many saying that it made them think about the responsibilities of driving. One King’s student, Lennie Tuckey said, “I thought that the safer journeys expo was a great information source and that our school and the other schools have learned heaps about keeping ourselves and others safe on the road. It was entertaining - there were some funny moments and some sad but overall was a great morning.”

Safer Journeys Expo Report

By Connor Maclaren

On Wednesday the 14th March, the Year 11s of King’s High School attended the “Safer Driving Expo” at the Edgar Centre. The expo was all about making the right decisions and safe driving.

The first section of it was an accident scenario to show us how dangerous driving can end up and how fatal it can be. In the scenario, there were two cars crashed head on and one passenger was out of the front windscreen. The driver of that car had done a runner while the driver of the other car was critically injured and stuck in the vehicle.

The Fire Brigade, Police and Ambo Paramedics arrived at the scene with all their equipment. The Fire Brigade slowly cut the driver out using a hydraulic cutter called the “Jaws Of Life”. Later on the Funeral Directors took away the woman passenger who had gone through the front windscreen and died.

The other sections talked about how you have to be aware and drive to the conditions and environments. One was about car modifications and how they have to be approved by NZTA. At the end of the expo, a mock funeral was held for the woman who had died at the scene. We also heard stories from people who now have brain injuries from past crashes.

Overall this expo was useful to us because most of us had never seen stuff like that before. It made me realise about the decisions I have to make while driving and the effects it can have if I don't make the right ones.