The first of about 1500 Dunedin and Otago secondary school pupils attended the latest annual ''Safer Journeys Expo'' at the Edgar Centre yesterday.
The expo includes police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, St John, as well as secondary schools and the Dunedin City Council.
''It's very important.
''You can make the right call, whether or not you're the driver.''
Some road safety issues were clearly apparent, but others were less easy to spot.
Some people did not realise that if, for example, they breached the terms of their restricted licence by driving outside their curfew hours or carrying unauthorised passengers, they could invalidate their insurance cover and might have to pay for crash damage themselves, she said.
The expo involved mock accident scenes, both morning and afternoon, in which actors played victims of a car accident and emergency services used cutting gear to cut them out of cars and then gave them medical aid.
Pupils from Kaikorai Valley College, John McGlashan College and Logan Park High School attended the expo's first sessions.
