Jon Morgan continues work with Traffic Offenders Intervention Program to keep roads safe

Jon Morgan came to Wagga in 2001 as a police officer and after working around the region, retired in 2012.

But, even after retirement, his passion continues to be educating people on the need to follow road rules for the safety of others.

Mr Morgan became involved with the first version of the Traffic Offenders Intervention Program after meeting Senior Constable Kevin Nisbet, who was the manager of the Wagga PCYC.

Together, they kicked off the first session in April 2002. It continues to edcuate those charged with offences ranging from mid range prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA), low range PCA, speeding, burnout, street racing, drug use and negligent driving.

The program is aimed at showing the devastating repercussions of incidents or crashes and has multiple segments - the accident scene, crash consequences, the police force, alcohol and other drugs, driving facts, the legal system and victims of road trauma.

"Over that 18 years, we've put over 5500 people through that course," Mr Morgan said.

"Our latest statistics show us that there's only a two to three per cent re-offending rate, which is way beyond what we planned, or foresaw back in 2002.

"That is now called The Traffic Offender Intervention Program."

Not content with staying on the sidelines, Mr Morgan signed up to become a member of the Rural Fire Service - a job which has seen him respond to several fatalities.

"I don't want to see another fatal again," he said.

"I've seen too many in my service, but it was part of my motivation to try and help reduce that road toll, to make people aware of what the consequences are, what can happen; and it's not just about them, it's about the greater community.

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"The people who are affected are not only the drivers, but the people who attend the scene and everyone throws through the whole system."

Mr Morgan said nothing could quite capture the scene of a horrific car crash, and the only people who truly understand are those involved and the emergency servicemen and women who respond.

He added that a coping strategy is to try and store them in a memory bank, but some incidents stick out as you can never forget them.

One Mr Morgan will never forget is when he had to hold a woman's neck in a stable position while emergency services tried to extract her.

"When I go to Sydney, I drive down a particular section of road, and I go past a certain intersection where there was a fatality there one day, and I actually helped extract a lady from her car, and she was terribly injured," he explained.

"It was probably the worst one I've been involved in. With the work, we did initially, they managed to keep her alive for a month, but unfortunately, she passed.

"It just never needed to happen."

It's this sort of story that Mr Morgan shares while standing up in front of people who attend the program, and their immediate reaction is often shocking.

While restrictions are relaxed and more people look to get out of Wagga for holidays, Mr Morgan stressed the importance of being safe.

"Dive to the conditions," he said.

"Drive to the speed limit. You can't drive after having consumed alcohol or illicit drugs. Be courteous on the road, be aware of others.

"And if you're running late, is it that important to speed? And the answer is, it's just not."

Mr Morgan said the success of the TOIP course was due to the hard work of multiple people including lawyer Zac Tankard, Sarah Wardman from NRMA, Paul Dawson from Roadcraft Driver Training and of those involved with PCYC Wagga.