For the second year running, Year 3/4 teacher Judy Frazer has delivered a fun road safety message to her charges at St Finbar’s in Glenbrook.
And this year husband, Peter Frazer, watched on the sidelines as children played games of ‘red light, green light’; played in fake buses made of school chairs, and raced pint-sized go karts up and down the playground.
Mr Frazer was relieved to be at the school instead of in a courthouse where he was expected to hear the “surprise” bail application of Kaine Daniel Barnett, the man who killed his youngest daughter Sarah, in a tragic road accident two years ago, as well as the tow truck driver helping her. The matter was postponed.
The Frazers are well known faces around Australia, battling for road safety awareness since Sarah died on the Hume Highway near Mittagong in February, 2012.
And no-one knows their battle, to “drive so others survive” campaign, better than the young students of Glenbrook.
“I have been teaching at St Finbar’s for many years and the students and staff have been very much aware of the both the tragic loss of my beautiful daughter, Sarah, and also the SARAH [Safer Australian Roads and Highways] group,” Mrs Frazer said.
Police visited the school during the day to emphasise the road safety message and students also worked on road safety art and craft.
Mrs Frazer said she had had plenty of help from several Year 6 students who gave the 2014 Yellow Ribbon Road Safety Week (May 4-11) an early kickstart this year.
One students were “gradually becoming more aware of road and bike safety”, she said.
Student, Harrison Burns, said he and his friends loved thinking up the outdoor games for the younger children to play.
“You remember something more if you enjoy it,” he said.
Peter Frazer has been widely commended for his forgiving approach to the young man charged with his daughter’s death. He had hugged Barnett after his recent sentencing. Mr Frazer told the Gazette “nothing’s going to bring her [Sarah] back but when you see someone in pain, well, it was his actions, it wasn’t him”.
The 2014 Yellow Ribbon ‘Drive So Others Survive’ road safety campaign was launched at Penrith’s Museum of Fire on the weekend.
Mr Frazer said the campaign highlighted the need “to protect all those who find themselves vulnerable on our roads and highways, especially our emergency services, roadside assistance and first responders, including incident response personnel”.
The day before the school launch a young woman was killed on the M1 in circumstances frighteningly similar to those leading up to his daughter’s death, Mr Frazer said.
Bree Stanford, 19, from Sydney's south-west, was killed when a truck ran into the back of her friend's broken-down car.
The driver has been charged with dangerous and negligent driving occasioning death.
