Young Canberrans need to be taken into hospital trauma wards to witness first-hand the tragic results of irresponsible behaviour on ACT roads.
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The head of shock trauma at the Canberra Hospital, Dr Ailene Fitzgerald, has been campaigning for a program to show young Canberrans the consequences of speeding, drink-driving and texting behind the wheel.
Official figures show 568 young people aged 12-25 were admitted to hospital suffering life-threatening injuries between 2006 and 2010.
Of those, 10 per cent were sent to rehab for a long-term disability and another 3 per cent died.
Dr Fitzgerald has long been calling for the introduction of a ''prevention of alcohol or risk-related trauma'', or PARTY, program in the ACT.
''You can't put a price on young people's health and safety. The most worrying thing for me is seeing young school kids involved in multi-trauma accidents,'' she said. ''I think we can do better.''
The PARTY program is a preventive health campaign developed by a Canadian emergency nurse in 1986 to give students a first-hand experience of the consequences of poor decision making.
Young people are shown where they would spend long periods as a trauma patient and introduced to young people like themselves who have suffered permanent disabilities as a result of risk-taking behaviour.
PARTY programs are already in place in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, and in six other countries.
With the age at which young people are introduced to alcohol continuing to drop sharply, Dr Fitzgerald said we had to act now. ''It's a fact that we have people losing their lives to injury. Studies show over 20 per cent of males admit to driving under the influence of alcohol in the ACT. It's a no-brainer isn't it?'' she said.
Dr Fitzgerald is seeking funding from the ACT government to introduce the program, but may go to private sources such as insurance companies if she has to.
A spokeswoman for ACT Health said the ACT government already had initiatives targeted at young people in place.
''The ACT Health Drug and Alcohol Service provides assessment and education through the Early Intervention Program. Referrals are received from ACT Policing via the Police Early Diversion program,'' she said.
The spokeswoman said risk-taking behaviour in any age group was a concern to ACT Health and it would continue to review the appropriateness of introducing a PARTY program in the ACT.
ACT Policing said it was concerned about the number of young people in Canberra behaving inappropriately on the roads. Statistics for 2012 show more than 60 per cent of all drink-drivers caught last year were under the age of 35, with 111 of them under the age of 19.
''Police are continually frustrated and disappointed at the number of drink-drive offenders who treat the laws and safety of other road users with indifference and contempt,'' officer in charge of Traffic Operations Rod Anderson said. ''The ACT road toll for 2013 currently stands at six, and that is six too many.''
A 2009 study of PARTY program participants by the Vancouver Island Health Authority in Canada found students were noticeably less likely to speed and use a mobile phone while driving. Students who had taken the program were more than twice as likely to drive at the speed limit than those who hadn't.
A study in Perth on juvenile offenders who had undergone the program found a huge drop in the rate of driving-related offences and a reduction in mortality and trauma-related injuries. The Royal Perth Hospital PARTY program was also just announced as a finalist in the 2013 Australian Road Safety Awards.
