KEY POINTS:
What brilliant timing with the announcement of a programme aimed at changing the attitudes of dangerous young drivers.
Manukau City Council announced the programme this week, the same week that saw three young people involved in dangerous-driving incidents, one of them paying the ultimate price, dying in the wreckage of his stolen car.
The Right Track is a 42-hour course that will take up to 15 teenagers facing serious traffic charges and show them exactly what happens after a bad car crash. They'll begin in the cells at Manukau District Court, be taken through the accident and emergency ward, they'll visit the Otara Spinal Unit where young people are facing life in a wheelchair after crashes left them paralysed and they'll meet people like Tamati Paul, a promising lifeguard whose career was cut short by a drink driver.
They'll also talk with emergency personnel and visit the coroner.
All those involved in the programme are realistic - in 42 hours, they say they're not expecting a road-to-Damascus-type conversion. But they say if three or four out of the group change their ways, they'll be happy.
More power to them and I wish them every success.
