Year 10 PDHPE – Stop it or Cop it
Seeing that this is the time for us to be getting our drivers licences, we have been delving into the topic “Stop It or Cop It” in Year 10 PDHPE, where we have been looking into the complexities of Road Safety and Driving Responsibilities. During this topic, we were introduced to an intriguing lifelike sculpture called ‘Graham’ as part of the campaign Project Graham. Graham’s otherworldly features make for a person who would be invincible to motor vehicle crashes. He was created to emphasise the dangers of car accidents, which is especially relevant today, as modern vehicles reach higher speeds and our bodies don’t have the physiology to absorb the impact when things go wrong.
The sculpture was created by a road safety engineer, a trauma surgeon from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a local Australian artist, to help people really understand how vulnerable our bodies are in accidents. With how fast and high-tech modern cars are getting, our bodies just aren’t made to handle that kind of force. As we dove into his exaggerated features, we were extremely curious about his bizarre, crash-proof body. Seeing Graham for the first time was certainly not what we expected, really making us stop and think about the risks we take every time we get into a car, and how important it is to take road safety seriously – especially as we start learning to drive ourselves. Graham reminds us that our bodies aren’t built for crashes — they’re built for living. Staying safe on the road isn’t just a rule, it’s a responsibility.
Olivia Gois and Gabrielle Coorey