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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-15 Daily Xml
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PARAQUAD SA

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (15:39): I rise today to inform the house about a fantastic initiative by PARAQUAD SA, which I am actively supporting. The Safe Driving campaign is designed to promote discussion within the family of the need for road safety. Not only does it encourage parents to drive in a more responsible fashion as role models for their children as future drivers but also it targets young children themselves and their peers.

At the centre of the campaign is a Safe Driving Agreement to be signed by both parents and their children. The agreement was designed by Dr Bill Griggs AM, ASM, an acclaimed trauma specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, to whom I would like to pay particular tribute not just for his work in this initiative but also for the work that he does on behalf of all Australians in relation to trauma/crisis situations around the world.

When I met with him at the beginning of October, Dr Griggs had just returned from Samoa where he had been coordinating the Australian Trauma Response Team immediately after the awful earthquake, and I pay particular tribute to him. However, I digress. Dr Griggs and his trauma department have been working with PARAQUAD SA, because both groups have to deal with the results of bad decisions often made by our young people regarding driving skills.

In Australia, young drivers under 21 have the highest crash risk of any age group. Per kilometre of travel they have the highest rates of involvement in all types of crashes, from those involving only property or car damage through to crashes causing permanent disablement or fatalities. The problem is worse in the first few years of driving when limited driving experience and sometimes risk-taking behaviour behind the wheel can result in disaster.

The cornerstones of the program are discussion, family trust, responsibility and choice. The agreement is basically a framework for families to discuss safety on the roads. Often it is the children themselves who are not happy with their parents' driving skills and want them to drive in a more responsible fashion. They are often too nervous to bring this up with their parents, and this agreement is a mechanism that allows them to be able to do that.

Parents want to bring up issues of speed, peer group pressure to drive in a particular way and how to resist them and the obvious issues of drink and drug driving. It might also be about not being a passenger in a car when you know the driver has been drinking or taking drugs. Risky behaviour can take many different forms, and the Safe Driving Agreement makes families sit down, think, talk and listen together before deciding on a cooperative family position. It is based on trust.

Parents need to be able to trust their child who is taking on the adult responsibility of driving, and young people are similarly showing their trust in their parents to support them when they need it. This may include picking them up at a venue in the early hours of the morning without question or acrimony in a calm and non-judgmental manner.

I would like to congratulate James Kinghorn, CEO of PARAQUAD SA; Michael Vickers, Manager, Special Projects; and particularly Dr Bill Griggs for this potentially life-saving project. I encourage all families to discuss and sign this document.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

A quorum having been formed:

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