After a near-miss with a truck on Christmas Eve, Jennifer Barfield took to LinkedIn to share her experience while visiting one of our many volunteer operated VICSES Driver Reviver rest stops - during a two-day journey north to Sydney - and thanked our volunteers for helping to save her life.

Each year, over key holiday peak periods, VICSES volunteers offer free coffee, tea and snacks at selected roadside locations to encourage drivers to stop, rest, and refresh, in an effort to ensure they can arrive safely at their destination.

Jennifer had already stopped at our Balmattum rest stop - between Euroa and Benalla - to grab a sausage sandwich and cup of tea.

Six hours into her journey, she was almost side-swiped by a heavy goods vehicle which prompted Jennifer to swerve onto the soft shoulder, while narrowly avoiding a collision with a tree.

Jennifer pulled into the next rest stop - which coincidently, was only 500 metres away - to compose herself and prepare for the rest of her journey.

Jennifer credits her fast reflexes and awareness of her surroundings to using the rest stop sites, and to our amazing VICSES volunteers who give up their time to operate these sites.

Driver Reviver is a 30-year-old program, powered by volunteers, that aims to promote road safety and save lives.

VICSES provides the largest road rescue network in Australia, with 104 accredited Road Crash Rescue (RCR) provider units (Principal Providers) across Victoria, and 22 Rescue Support units (Rescue Support Providers). That is one of the highest service delivery ratios for RCR globally – equating to 73% of our service base across our statewide footprint. 

However, we would much rather serve you a cup of tea, than cut you out of a car.

Plan your rest stops now, with our live Driver Reviver site map: https://www.driverreviver.com.au/driver-reviver-sites/?state=VIC