Fatal crash victim's mum slams teens

A grieving Rotorua mother fears her daughter's teenage friends and associates have not learned from her death.

Kristi-Rae Ruri-Gardiner died on July 23, 2010, a day after she and four friends were involved in a collision with a Toyota Hilux on State Highway 33.

Her mother, Karen Gardiner, had hoped Rotorua teenagers would learn from Kristi-Rae's car crash, but has seen comments from some of her daughter's friends on social networking site Facebook about being in overloaded cars and drink-driving.

Mrs Gardiner is proactive in encouraging driver education for Rotorua youths, but said it was upsetting teenagers hadn't learned from past events.

She is supporting Rotorua's inaugural Youth Road Safety Expo on December 5, and says she wants teenagers to take the information on board.

"These girls know better than anyone about the dangers of these sorts of things," she said.

"It is actually upsetting because these girls should realise the consequences."

Mrs Gardiner said youth driver education was a great thing.

"I do think that kids need to learn how to look after their cars as well as drive them," she said.

"They should know what to do in an emergency and learn how to do things like change a tyre."

She said educational expos like the one being planned should be a good tool for Rotorua youth.

"I think the more it is in their faces, the more likely they are to take things on board."

Mrs Gardiner is encouraging parents to take their learner drivers to a Youth Road Safety Expo from December 5 to 7.

The expo has been organised by Rotorua District Council road safety co-ordinator Jodie Lawson in response to the high profile crashes in July last year, including the crash which Kristi-Rae was in.

"The number of road crash fatalities involving local teenage drivers last year was shocking," Ms Lawson said.

"We want to better equip young people and their parents on responsible driving, especially with the Christmas season approaching."

Ms Lawson said she also wanted to see more parents getting involved with their teenager learning to drive.

"Attending the expo is an excellent investment in their young driver's life."

The expo is also supported by Rotorua police, the Fire Service, St John's, the BayTrust Rescue Helicopter and Rotary.

Senior Sergeant Denton Grimes of the Rotorua police said the expo was a very proactive and worthy event.

"The Rotorua police see this as an opportunity to deliver key road safety messages and help young people make the right decisions and take responsibility for themselves and others when they are driving."

In addition to the expo, the Drive4Life memorial concert is being held on December 10.

"It will be the second time we've held the concert in memory of local teens that died in last year's tragic road accidents, and sadly more teenagers have died since," Ms Lawson said.

"It's so important that people get it through their heads that lives will always be at risk if drivers don't behave responsibly."