Atkins’ connection to road safety round

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten launched this year’s AFL Victoria, Transport Accident Commission of Victoria (TAC) and Victorian Government Road Safety Round — involving more than 1000 Victorian football and netball clubs wearing blue armbands.

The armbands was a show of strength by the sporting bodies toward eliminating death and serious injury on Victorian roads.

Sherry’s brother, Travis Atkins, died on March 22, 1998, in one of Kyabram’s most horrific road accidents.

Three people, including Travis, were instantly killed when the car they were travelling in hit a tree and split in half — throwing the three people in the passenger seat from the vehicle.

Two other people in the vehicle were injured in the accident.

A year after the accident, in memory of her brother, Sherry, younger brother Chris and father Kevin were the driving force behind the inaugural Travis Atkins Memorial Day.

“St Augustine’s Junior Football Club approached my mum and dad (Hilary and Kevin) to get the game up and going. My mum, Hilary, passed away very suddenly in 2004 so I have assisted in continuing on with supporting this game,” Sherry said.

The event will this year be staged on Sunday, August 7, and will again be driven by Travis’ former junior football club — St Augustines.

So far this year, 132 people have lost their lives on Victorian roads, with 77 of those in regional areas — a concerning rise on the 59 regional deaths at the same time last year.

Sherry, who works at a Nathalia school, spent more than a decade in Early Childhood Intervention service and now does casual district nursing. Working permanently at a school in Nathalia.

'’I have always spoken to the boys and girls before the weekend’s game about how much road accidents affect the community,’’ she said.

“My message has always been that it does not impact just one person and how decisions can have ongoing consequences for others.’’

It was a Sunday night after the Kyabram Kamikaze ball that Travis and two others were killed in the car accident.

“Travis was 25, there was one teenager and another in their early-20s who lost their lives. The accident was on McEwen Rd, near the Midland Hwy intersection, where they hit a tree and the car split in two,” Sherry said.

The name Atkins is well known in Kyabram sporting circles, Travis and Sherry’s brother Chris a highly credentialed and easily recognisable player with Kyabram for several seasons.

Known widely as “Afro’’, Chris has attended several of the tribute games held to honour his brother.

Father Kevin and family friend — also long-time football official — Tony Hansen always picked the best player from the memorial game.

Sherry said while the junior footballers were too young to drive, she always felt starting the education process early had an impact.

“If it makes one kid think then it has worked,” she said.

Sherry said while none of the kids playing these days would know the former St Augustine’s College student, the message remained extremely important.

"In the last 10-odd years we had to change it a little. It is now very much based around the road safety awareness.

“Our catchphrase has always been ‘look after your mates’, which was something used by the TAC,” she said.

“We have reinforced the looking after your mates catchphrase to be used in all aspects of their lives.

“If they see a mate doing something that might be the wrong thing to talk to them and stop them from doing something that might impact their whole lives,” Sherry said.

Traditionally the Travis Atkins Memorial match has culminated three junior matches, but Sherry said she was still unsure of the format for August 7 (which will be held at the Northern Oval).

“I usually go to their training the week before to have a chat to the boys and girls about how the game came about,’’ she said.

"Last year we had a police officer, Frank Scopeletti, who was one of the officers on the scene of the accident.

"The kids always get a lot out of it,“ she said.