Campaign puts young driver safety in focus for school Leavers

DTMI is partnering with the Road Safety Commission (RSC) to focus on young driver safety via the powerful ‘Tom's Story’ campaign.

The campaign will run November 9 to December 6 to coincide with Leavers, a time when many young people journey together around our State to celebrate the end of their secondary schooling years.

The emotive ‘Tom’s Story’ campaign is based on the story of 15-year-old Tom Saffioti, who was killed in a road crash as a backseat passenger in September 2021.

Tom's mum Samantha and his best friend Ben feature in the campaign, sharing their memories of Tom and asking young drivers to 'Drive like your mate's life depends on it. Because it does.'

“My son Tom’s life was full of promise,” Samantha recalls. “By sharing his story, I hoped to protect other young people and spare families the heartache of losing someone they love.

“Too often, road safety is spoken about in numbers and rules. But behind every statistic is a real person, a real family, a real community. This campaign asks young people to think, that could be me, that could be my best mate, that could be my brother or sister.

“My message is simple: every time you get in the car, behind the wheel, the choices you make affect more than just you. Safe driving isn’t about following rules when you think someone’s watching, it’s about protecting yourself, protecting your mates and protecting every life on the road, every day.”

The campaign provides important driving advice to stay safe such as limiting distractions, always wearing a seatbelt, sticking to the speed limit, not driving tired and taking notice of road and weather conditions. 

The 'Tom's Story' campaign is an extension of the award-winning 'Red plate. One mate' campaign launched in December 2024 to raise awareness to new legislation know as Tom’s Law, restricting red P-platers to carrying one passenger.

The original campaign in 2025 supported community consultation on proposed changes to WA's Graduated Licensing System (GLS). which will undergo a landmark overhaul over the next 18 months.

The ‘Tom’s Story’ campaign will run in tandem with RSC’s annual Wheelmates campaign, which encourages young drivers to look out for one another and embrace shared responsibility on the roads.

View the Tom's Story and Wheelmates campaigns.