A SINGLE decision changed the course of Anthony Bartl’s life.
Now he’s resolved to do all he can to prevent others from becoming victims of road trauma.
The Flemington resident was just six when he was struck by a car as he crossed a road without looking on his way home from school.
Now a quadriplegic, Mr Bartl, 32, visited Taylors Lakes Secondary College last week to share a road safety message with year 11 students as part of a Fit to Drive program.
Schools across the north-west are taking part in the new safety initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the consequences of risk-taking on the roads. Presentations are given by road trauma victims, firefighters and police officers. Students are also exposed to graphic footage and take part in peer group discussions.
After he was hit, Mr Bartl’s parents employed a private investigator, who found that the car that hit the boy was travelling 5km/h over the 60 speed limit. “If the driver had stuck to the speed limit I would have only received some bruising to my legs and arms,” he said. “It’s been a hell of a ride. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. Sometimes it’s been hard to stay positive, but I want people to know life does go on after a severe disability; you can still reach your dreams.”
Mr Bartl completed a journalism degree at La Trobe University and is a qualified primary school teacher. In 2010, he won $50,000 on TV game show Hot Seat, which he used to travel around Australia.
According to Transport Accident Commission figures, 20 people under 25 have died on Brimbank and Melton roads in the past five years, the highest number of deaths in any age group.
Keilor Downs’s Leading Senior Constable Gerard Dickinson told students about an accident in which a young woman lost both her legs and watched her fiance die in her arms. “She watched her fiance’s funeral on Skype in a hospital bed,” he said. “She did nothing wrong; another driver failed to give way. But if you put alcohol, drugs and speed into the mix you can imagine how devastating road accidents can be.”
Senior Constable Dickinson says, on average, one Victorian becomes a paraplegic as a result of a road accident every 17 days. “Young people have a mentality that after an accident they will either be OK or they will die,” he said. “Death is final, there is no pain . . . but what they don’t realise if that there are 20,000 injured in car accidents every year, those victims don’t walk away OK – their lives are changed irreparably.”
He said the five main causes of road trauma in youth were speed, drink-driving, drug-affected driving, hooning and texting while driving.
Year 11 student Tom Hortle said all western suburbs students should take part in the program. “It was really effective. It didn’t hide from the facts and Anthony was inspirational.”
Fit to Drive will be held at Sunshine College on November 14.
