Doctor-driven program showing kids the consequences of risky driving

It’s a worrying time for all parents when their teenager starts to drive. I join that parental club in the next few weeks.

Roads today are far busier than all those years ago when we got our licence, and then there are those modern distractions like mobile phones that we never had.

So it's no wonder the road toll statistics show an ever-increasing number of serious and fatal accidents involving young drivers.

WARNING: Some images in the above video are confronting.

Despite all the warnings and conversations, many young people continue to text while driving and be distracted by peer pressure when in a car.

Something had to be done, and it’s come from those at the coalface – the doctors, nurses, paramedics, police and firefighters who are far too often called out to road accidents involving young kids.

And so the P.A.R.T.Y Program was initiated at major hospitals around the country.

The acronym stands for Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth.

Emergency workers take groups of schoolkids who are about to get their driver’s licence through hospital wards to see the results of taking risks on the roads.

They show them the videos, photos and aftermath of accidents involving young drivers.

They meet the wheelchair-bound kids who took those risks because they wanted to text or drink and drive.

It is confronting. And after spending an eight-hour day doing this course it is mentally exhausting and eye-opening.

This story doesn’t do the course justice but it gives a taste of what it is all about.

Certainly the kids from Turramurra High who were there on the day I was filming were deeply impacted by what they saw and heard.

And for that reason, my 16-year-old son will be coming with dad to a course in the coming weeks.

For more information on the P.A.R.T.Y. program, there’s a website in most Australian States and Territories.