By Luke Voogt
Torquay’s Tayla Stevens is “living proof” wire barriers save lives.
The 20-year-old has become the local face of TAC’s latest campaign after surviving a crash on the Western Highway, Sunshine, in early 2016.
“I hit the wire barriers in the middle of the highway,” she told the Indy Wednesday.
“They stopped me from going onto the other side and into oncoming traffic.”
The then 19-year-old P-plater was driving from Melbourne to Ballarat when an unknown object hit her windscreen.
“It made me jump, and I lost control of the car,” she said.
“(The wire barriers) took the impact of the car and actually slowed it down, rather than bouncing it back into the traffic that was coming behind.”
Tayla admitted being tired and said she could just as easily be “living proof” for TAC’s fatigue campaigns.
“Oh my God, I would recommend a 15-minute power nap.”
She said a “big night” two days earlier had left her fatigued.
“It was pretty stupid of me – I put a lot of people at risk, not just myself. But we all make mistakes and learn from them.”
Tayla was devastated to lose her 2008 Holden Barina, which “was in pretty good nick”.
“But (my parents) were happy I was alive,” she said.
Tayla said wire barriers could be dangerous for motorcyclists, but that for the majority of motorists they save lives.
TAC recently launched the Living Proof campaign, to show how measures like child booster seats, wire barriers, safer cars and safer speeds saved lives.
