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Road safety presentation Licence to Kill was delivered to nearly 700 students this week.
The annual tri-service talk was also opened up to members of the public, allowing the safe-driving message to reach as wide an audience as possible.
The hard-hitting hour-long talk sees members of Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service, Guernsey Police and St John Ambulance discussing the potential lifelong ramifications a single bad decision can have on you and those around you when you’re behind the wheel of a car.
"As clinician’s we deal first hand with the sometimes horrific injuries which result from car crashes. This presentation, although hard hitting, allows us to show young people with their whole lives ahead of them the impact of a single bad decision can have on them, their friends and their family," Jim Cathcart, St John Ambulance Clinician, said.
Firefighter Gavin Robins added: “Our role in car crashes is to get people out of the vehicle, and after it has been involved in an impact extracting people from the twisted remains is no easy task. All that while lives can hang in the balance – and this is all down to the poor decisions of the person behind the wheel. The driver could have gotten them to their destination safely, but it is their bad choices which led to this moment. It could have been avoided. And they will have to live with that. The message from this presentation is simple: drive safely.”
Roads Policing Officer Matthew du Port concluded: “Dangerous driving has no place whatsoever on our roads. It’s vitally important we do everything we can to educate those who are about to become drivers that yes, these terrible things can happen to you and it is you who can prevent them by taking responsibility, driving safely and knowing that a single moment of stupidity can kill or maim either you or those you care about. It’s up to everyone in that car to say 'stop'.”
Pictured: The Licence to Kill team gave a number of the presentations this week.
The presentation included a talk from Becci Hey, whose son Josh Bryant – who was just 20 years old – was killed in a car crash over seven years ago when he was a passenger in his friend's vehicle.
Ms Hey (pictured above, centre) said she wanted to give talks like these to save lives and to make others think about their decisions when they are driving.
“I wanted to raise awareness and educate young drivers and potential drivers,” she said, “of the very real tragic consequences of someone making a bad decision.
“Josh was just 20 years old, and on the 27th April 2012, he was a passenger in a car where the driver chose to speed. The roads were quiet similar to Guernsey roads, very rural. The driver lost control and he hit a tree. Josh was killed. The driver survived.
“I had a call from one of Josh’s friends who was travelling in a car behind telling me there had been an accident. I was at the police cordon 200 metres from the crash, they understandably wouldn’t let me through. I remember the Police Liaison Officer walking toward me, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
“There is a ripple effect, the aftermath, it affects everything and everybody. What I want is for the students to take away from this is that it can happen to them, they are not invincible. When I do these talks, the students are affected, there have been tears, hopefully it has made them think and realise these things do happen. About 700 people went to his funeral, and it affected our community for a long time.
“Now we are living life for him, in his memory, and to try and prevent another family going through this.”
Pictured top: The Licence to Kill event took place at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts.
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