Roadshow aims to lower road death toll

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 17

Roadshow aims to lower road death toll

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By

SUZANNE KEEN

Teenage parties alcohol ... fast cars ... A cliche image perhaps, but unforgettable in the minds of the emergency services and families called in to pick up the pieces after another joyride gone wrong. It is also a picture being brought home to thousands of Christchurch secondary school students. Since June this year, the Roadshow team has visited 16 schools, graphically portraying the effects of macho behaviour by young men on the road. The show’s theme song and title is “One in Five,” a reference to the chance of its target audience having a serious or fatal road accident before they reach the age of 24. The seven actors and backstage crew in each of the two companies have all come from the Christchurch Academy and are not much older than their audience. They stress they do not aim to “preach” or show what is right from wrong, but to entertain and • let the young people make their own conclusions. Brent Hepburn, aged 18, who plays “Ron,” the macho man, tells his audience at Christchurch Boys’ High School that although most people have heard about big disasters like the Wahine tragedy, many are not aware of the large number of road accidents. "But, maybe if people know about it the road toll can be lowered. We are not blaming it on people in the 15 to 25 age group, we are just showing you what is happening out there.” One of the other performers, Tina Cook, disagrees. She says the statistics show that young people are having more accidents and that she is “pointing the finger.” “We are the valuable

ones that are the future of this country.” The show begins with the “One in Five” theme song and a video showing a teenage driver spinning out in the twentieth century Grim Reaper Handicap. The scene then follows Ron, the macho, rugbyplaying, motorbike rider and his sensitive friend, Dave, and is interspersed, with more video clips and songs about driving attitudes and their consequences. Although Ron’s aggressive behaviour leads him in to numerous arguments

with his friend and his girlfriend, Sarah, and earns him a strong warning from a traffic officer, he inevitably follows the road to destruction. After drinking alcohol at a party, he takes Sarah for a spin on the bike, and has an accident which leaves the young woman unconscious in hospital. Following the hour-long performance, the actors answer' questions from their audience and discuss the alternatives to driving

while drunk, such as calling a taxi, your parents, or staying the night at the party venue. The students are also informed about the Students Against Driving Drunk (S.A.D.D'.) organisation. The actors are pleased with the reactions and intelligent questions from the Boys’ High audience especially as the students were younger third formers. They say it is difficult to anticipate what sort of response they will get from each school, although generally the young people give good feedback. They find that students in single sex schools are more attentive than in co-educational schools where girls tend to be giggly and the boys noisy. Most of the performers have limited experience on stage and were unaware when they began the Academy ■ course that Roadshow was in the pipeline. “We thought they were just jiving us when they first told us about it,” recalls Brent.

He has had a year’s training at the academy and at the Young Men’s Christian Association Youth Development Centre. He has also written and produced his own play. The others in his company include two singers, Stella Dodson, aged 25, Pei-Pei Lane, aged 18, and Matiu Kopa, 25, and Maria Van-Den-Hoven, aged 24. Maria had a friend killed in a road accident earlier this year. They all believe that the show has made them more aware of the effects of driving behaviour, but admit they sometimes wonder if the message is getting through to the audiences. Tina adds that the “acting up” and laughing from some students is just their way of handling the unpleasant facts and images. “Sometimes when you are really tired you worry about whether you are getting through, but you think that if you get through to one in each audience that’s something,” says Brent.