Crash victim tells sobering story

Jared Thomas’s life changed on a drunken Saturday night three years ago, when a car he was in spun out on a rural road at around 180km/h.

Jared was left tetraplegic and his brother, the driver, was killed.

Napier STU officer Senior Constable Iain Cheyne was first on the scene. In the months after the crash, he had several meetings with Jared and was impressed by Jared’s matter-of-fact approach to his new predicament.

“After spending so much time with Jared I had to get him in front of some kids,” Iain says. “I knew he could get the drink driving message out a hell of a lot easier than we could. It wasn’t going to be easy, but we were both committed to the idea.”

Jared Thomas (right) is working with Constable Iain Cheyne to tell young people how his life in one night. Photo: Tom Allan, Band Design

Linda Anderson of ACC’s Roadsafe pushed the project forward.

At the Hawkes Bay Youth Alcohol Expo in May, Jared (now 29) gave seven presentations, telling some 2000 high school kids how his brother Willie got drunk, drove, killed himself and another mate, and seriously injured two others.

“The effect was amazing,” says Iain. “There was total concentration, with not a sound from any of the audiences during the presentations. Focus groups questioned soon after the Expo revealed the right messages were taken on board, with many school kids requesting more of this kind of thing.”

Jared’s story is also told in a DVD, ‘Just Another Saturday Night’. It includes interviews with people involved in the crash, such as emergency responders and hospital staff, and animation explaining the physics of the crash.

“It’s a permanent reminder of Jared’s experiences and what his life is like now,” says Iain. “It can be used in so many ways to help kids realise they’re not 10 foot tall and bullet-proof and that if they drink and drive, they could die or suffer horrific consequences,” Iain says.

Jared and Iain plan to make more presentations to schools in Eastern District.