TAC Writing Competition
Personal/ Informative writing
NICOLETTE COMMINS
YEAR 10
ST MICHAEL’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL
25 Chapel St
St Kilda VIC 3182
(03) 8530 3200
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My first lesson
My first day of learner driving was a complete disaster. We were down at Brighton Beach lookout and I can honestly say that a group of tourists who were wandering by will never know how close they came to being hit by my car. My Dad stayed very calm, which was very important because I was so anxious.Dad is the sort of man who is obsessed with the 120-hour logbook. For example, if I do 58 minutes of driving he will write 58 minutes in the logbook. No matter what I say, he will not round up the 58 minutes to one hour! We think he is a little bitOCD about the accuracy of the logbook but I know I will thank him one day. Had he panicked in that first lesson, then it would have made the situation much worse. It was ironic that the only person who was concerned about what was happening was me.
Geelong – talking about the regatta
A few years ago, we were in Geelong in summer and it was beautiful weather. Although I enjoyed watching my Dad’s involvement in the yacht races, it was frustrating that we could only see the start and the finish, so there was a lot of time to do other things.
As a result, I spent time shopping with my mum, my sisters and some family friends. While walking down a typical street in Geelong, my mum took a phone call from her best friend. This phone call was the change everything for me. We learned that a 17-year-old girl who was very close to a family friend (as well as us) had died in a car accident early that morning. Looking back on this event it has had a lasting impact on me. It has increased my awareness of alcohol use and how our decisions can be affected by not being able to think clearly when put in a position that we have to decide whether we should get into a car where people are intoxicated.
The trial
As a result of the loss of my friend, the police charged a man. On the day of the sentencing, only people who were connected with the case were allowed to be in the courtroom, while other people watched on screens from another room. It was clear that not only the deceased person’s family was suffering but also the defendant’s family.
When the sentence was given some people thought that the jail term was too short and on one level, I’d agree with that. However, what I also think is that the driver of the car has to live with that for the rest of his life. Maybe sometimes that’s enough punishment because that type of suffering would never end. The fact the driver was friends with the girl who died would make it very hard for him knowing this had happened.
Pictures of You
As part of the ‘Pictures of You’ campaign of the TAC, I watched the segment about Alicia Longmore,whose mother was sitting in Alicia’s room and reflecting on what had happened.I think the most powerful line in the letter that Alicia’s mother and sister wrote was, ‘you didn’t know her to miss her’. It is awful to think that sometimes, people die in accidents where the driver barely knows the passengers. From this segment on ‘Pictures of You’ it is clear that the affects that road deaths have on families are incredible. The death did not have to happen. If that person decided not to get into that car because they knew they wouldn’t be safe or the driver was too drunk the death would not have happened.
Death Blooms
I enjoy watching the short films in the MAFMAD series; one of my favourite films is ‘Death Blooms’. In the film, the back seat passenger, Jess, saves Ben and Harry’s life and yet they don’t seem to be aware of it. Somestudies have shown that learners who have done 120 hours or more have a reduced chance of being in a crash by as much as 40%. When we look at the road toll and the higher chance of death and injury of drivers aged 18 to 25 years, we need to do two things.
Firstly, to make sure that every fully licenced driver is as OCD as my Dad when it comes to filling in the Vicroadslogbook. We also have to make sure that there is at least 10 hours of supervised night driving. Given that so many collisions happen with young people at night, maybe one idea would be to increase this to 20 hours just to make sure that young people have enough experience when they are driving at night. After all, this is when we are likely to be driving. For now, I am happy that my Dad is so strict!
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