Safe Drive Event< Guy Fawkes Night In Stoke Park | Blog | Alex At The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre > A few weeks ago on a Thursday morning, I went with three other work colleagues to see a stage performance called ‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive', which was a hard-hitting interactive show about the dangers faced with driving.
The event was mainly aimed at young and future young drivers, so the audience was to consist mainly of school children, college students, and teachers. We were told that show would involve watching a story about a road traffic collision in Guildford. A reconstruction film was to be interspersed on stage with real life testimonies by serving members of Surrey’s emergency services. There were also going to be stories told live on stage by some of the parents of young people who had sadly lost their lives in road traffic collisions. In addition, a person disabled by the actions of irresponsible driving was to go on stage. The film itself, and the various stage speakers sounded quite difficult viewing. I was interested to watch and learn from the experience, due to the job I do, and to become more aware when driving, of what happens during a bad accident on the road. The event was held within the Dorking Halls in Dorking, which has a theatre stage area. A few people who have worked longer in our office than ourselves, told us about the show, and that it made some of them, and the schoolchildren cry. From our office, the four of us travelled to Dorking in one of the company cars, with one of the girls driving, who was using a Tom-Tom to navigate the way there. During our car trip, we were talking about feature films that have upset us. The others talked about various hard-hitting movies like Schindler's List.
The only film I could think of that ever made me cry was E.T. when I saw it as a young boy. Especially when E.T. was sick in hospital. My Dad told me that he’d love to cut ET’s head off with a pair of garden shears, whilst I was upset watching the film as a young boy, which made things worse for me.
When we arrived in Dorking, we had got there a little bit too early. We parked behind Dorking Halls in the car park, and saw a number of police cars, fire vehicles, ambulances, as well as a few school coaches arriving. As the event was not due to start for quite awhile, we walked round Dorking to find somewhere for a quick coffee and a bite to eat. During our walk, we passed an interesting shop selling telescopes. We looked through the shop window at all the different shapes and sizes of telescopes, some of them looked like bazookas! There was a Starbucks Café nearby, so we went in there. I ordered from Starbucks The Cheese & Marmite™ Breakfast Panini, and a hot chocolate drink with cream. The others ordered coffee for themselves. We all sat at a table together within the Starbucks café. One of the café staff brought us out our food and drinks. My hot chocolate had a huge dollop of cream in it, which looked like a scoop of ice cream floating on top of my drink. We had a bit of a laugh about that. After we finished our hot drinks and food, we left Starbucks to walk back towards Dorking Halls. In front of Dorking Halls there was a new 4x4 Police car, which I liked the look of. We went inside and saw various Surrey emergency service workers, and staff linked to the event. One of them checked our names off their list, after we told them who we worked for. By the bar we got chatting to an emergency service fire crew member, who told us more about the event we were due to see. We then went inside the theatre, up into the stalls and we sat together in some seats in the middle. Some school children then arrived and sat in the seats around us. Inside the theatre there was some very loud dance music playing, with flashing disco lights, to give the impression of being in a nightclub. Some of the kids near the front were jigging around in time to the music. There were two big screens on either side of the stage area in front of us. Once all the various school and college students had sat down with their teachers, the event then began. The first speaker and host came on to stage introduce himself. He then got all the kids to shout and make lots of noise, like they seem to do at most children’s events. I hate it when adults encourage children to make loud noise at events, as I don’t like shrill high tones of young voices echoing through my ears and head like that. I never even liked other children screeching and shouting when I was a kid myself, I should have brought ear plugs. He then told everybody in the audience to look under their seats for a special ticket, and to stand up if they found one. This got all the young children excited and the winners stood up. He then told the audience this was the amount of people that died on the roads last year, which was quite a downer for them, and a bit of a shock. The host then warned the young audience that what they were about to see was going to be hard hitting, and there will be counsellors on hand for those that needed it during and after the show. They started to go a bit quiet after that. A film was then projected onto the two screens on the stage in front of us. As the film was playing, we recognised different roads and areas within Guildford, including the Cricketers pub near Aldershot Road, the one-way system in the town centre, and Harpers, which is Guildford’s main nightclub. It was a story about a young group of friends, who pick up a girl from the Cricketers pub in a car, to head to the Harpers nightclub in the Guildford town centre. On the way, the girl asks the driver to speed up. The passengers get a little rowdy and distracting for the driver. The driver overtakes a car, but he hits an oncoming car on the other side of the road. The film then pauses, and a Police Officer comes on to the stage. The Police Officer said that the film is a reconstruction based on a true event. He then says he was first on the scene and talked about what he did and saw. He also spoke about other fatal accidents he has to deal with, and the horror of collecting bits of bodies, and seeing people die in front of him. He then left the stage, and the film restarted. The film went on to the fire and rescue crew and then paused and another guy came on to do a talk on stage. Then the film showed the ambulance crew and then paused again, and another guy came on from that emergency service. Then it showed a hospital and the emergency nurses, Doctor's and surgeons, a surgeon came on stage to speak in graphic detail. Then the film showed a Police Officer who has to visit the parents at their home to tell the family that their young son or daughter has died. A real parent came on stage to talk, which was very hard hitting. Then a disabled person came on, who was a victim of a car crash. These speakers were all real people and not actors, which made it difficult viewing, especially hearing the family members, who have lost their children, or the Doctor and emergency services speaking about bodies being torn in half, losing heads, and so on. Some of the children in the audience got very upset, and had to leave the theatre half-way in-between. When the event had ended, everyone was very quiet leaving the theatre. It was a very different change of tone from the very beginning of the event. I found the event very worthwhile, and it has made me think more about my driving and speed. I am certainly a more aware of the road now. I would recommend anyone I know to go and see the event, especially any young, or future drivers. We then left Dorking to return to our office.
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