Nicole Langdon
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nicole.langdon@fairfaxmedia.com.au
OF the 9000-plus teenagers who've had the message "use your brain and not the pedal on the roads" drummed into them over the past nine years, none have lost their life on the road.
And, one of the driving forces behind the Power of Choice safe driving program, Senior Constable Jason Bentley, couldn't be happier.
"Saving lives is the best outcome we could hope for," he said.
"The course is definitely changing young people's attitudes.
"We've been doing it for so long now that former students, who are now in their 20s, come back and tell us how grateful they are that the message stuck with them."
Last week, a group of Mackillop Senior College students were the latest to learn about making the right choices when in, or behind the wheel of, a car.
While the course is uniqe to the Hastings, many have called for it to be adopted statewide to stop P-platers dying on our roads.
Incorporating talks from emergency services personnel, crash victims and hands-on education seminars, it rests squarely on the principal that "education is key".
"Out hopes are simple, to reduce the road toll," Snr Constable Bentley said.
"The course is all about making good decisions and reinforcing that they have the power to put safety first.
"We talk about basic things like double and triple checking, because all it takes is a couple of seconds of not paying attention to have a major accident."
As the head of the region's Crash Investigation Unit, and most senior crash investigator outside the NSW metropolitan area, Snr Constable Bentley has dealt with hundreds of accidents - about half of them fatalities.
One of these was the tragic death of 16-year-old L-plater Kayla Green near Telegraph Point in 2009. It was just one of four fatalities in a horror nine-day period.
At the other end of the scale, the policeman said the Power of Choice program was "the most rewarding thing I've been involved in".
"It makes me feel like I am playing a small role to stop what's happening on our roads."
