Road safety educator Kelly Munford nearly died herself

Thursday, 3 May 2018

Kelly Munford has been working to educate teenagers about road safety for four years.

Kelly Munford says every day above ground is a good day.

They're powerful words from a woman who suffered a broken pelvis, broken neck and a traumatic brain injury when she fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed into a tree.

That crash, on Auckland's Southern Motorway in early 2011, took her years to recover from.

Even now the impact of the crash affects her - and the groups she speaks to as a road safety educator.

* My sister's death: 'The majority of road deaths are preventable'

* 'Reckless behaviour' causes half of fatal and serious road crashes

* Robbed by the road: 'I dread travelling on public holiday'**

'They hear it in my voice, the way I walk, the way I move,' she said.

'I think, when I first walk in, the students, they look at me up and down and then they hear my story and … they're very taken.

You can 'hear a pin drop' after she speaks to students.

Following the crash, her father took two years off work to care for her.

They had to leave the home they lived in so Munford, now 28, could stay in a rehabilitation facility before they moved to a boarding house.

But she says the experience has made her a better person.

'I think I'm a much nicer person now. Because of all the help I have had, I'm not so selfish anymore. It's amazing what a good whack to the head does.'

It was a hard way to learn a lesson, she agreed.

EDUCATING TEENAGERS

Munford has been a road safety educator for four years.

'I wanted to share my story to prevent such things happening to others,' she said.

Her focus is educating young drivers to make good choices.

This year, she's part of a new approach being used by Road Safety Education (RSE).

It's turning teenagers into crash investigators in the RYDA programme.

According to RSE, the initiative 'shifts the focus away from injury and long term consequences, which are often difficult for a student to accept as personally relevant'.

One of the areas Munford has focused on is driver fatigue. She fell asleep behind the wheel, which caused her crash in 2011.

Students are taught the Safe System - an approach that puts how people think and act behind the wheel at the centre of how we design and operate our road transport system - and then they're tasked with identifying the details of the crash.

They interview a presenter with a real life experience - like Munford - then identify personal, community and government strategies that could prevent similar outcomes in the future.

RSE Programme Manager Maria Lovelock said: 'In the past, often these sorts of stories have just been focused on the long term consequences around what's happened to a person who's been in a crash.

'So we wanted to get them involved in solving a problem, as opposed to just hearing a sad story.

'Kelly's story is she fell asleep and hit a tree. So we do an investigation with the students and say 'What could the safe system have done there. If this could have been in place, how could it have helped Kelly receive less severe injuries than she did'.

Munford tells her story and an interview panel of students ask her about the 24 hours leading up to the crash.

Another group looks at what could be changed to avoid that type of thing happening again.

'It's getting kids to see it from a more positive framework, be part of the solution and kind of say 'you guys are the next generation, this is kind of in your hands a little bit, how do we go forward and be safer?', rather than come from the approach of 'you guys are idiots because you're teenagers'.'

Students at an RYDA safety driving program in 2016.

MUNFORD'S VIEW

'I think hearing real life stories and real life scenarios can make it hit home so much more,' Munford said.

'I've had lots of people say they thought of me when they went in the car one night.:

Over the years since her crash, Munford's perspective has changed.

'I think my whole attitude has changed. I've sort of come to terms with it. I had the crash, it was my own fault. There's no-one to blame, and I'm OK with that.'

'Every day above ground is a good day.'

HOW MANY ARE BEING EDUCATED?

RSE expected to have about 7000 students through its programme in 2018.

In 2017, it hit its 50,000th student.

ROAD SAFETY WEEK

Next week - May 7 to May 13 - is road safety week.

Organisers are attempting to simplify the message and the behaviour changes required in a bit to save lives.

It's easy: Belt on, phone off.