Raina and her best friend were 17 and about to finish school when tragedy struck

Raina still has difficulty driving. After losing her father and then her best friend to traffic accidents, she knows better than anyone how dangerous our roads can be.

“I had such a special bond with my dad,” Raina, 25, told nine.com.au ahead of Fatality Free Friday on May 29.

“He was the parent at school pick-up, at our events and there when we needed him.

“And to this day I still say, regardless of whether he’s here or not, I’m really a daddy’s girl.”

The family had settled in Rockhampton in regional Queensland, where her parents ran the local post office. Raina was six when he died, and her mother had to break the news to her.

“I remember waking up in the early morning hours, confused as to why my mother was suddenly not home,” she said.

‘My sister and I had been dropped off at a friend’s house the night before as mum had rushed to Gladstone after receiving a call from dad’s driving partner. He had said, “Hey… something happened to Steve.”

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“I remember the atmosphere feeling strange before anyone had even explained what was going on, and then Mom walked in.” She cried so hard she could barely speak.

“I remember waking up abruptly to the sound of her tears and the overwhelming feeling that something was very wrong.

“She looked at us and said, ‘Daddy’s not coming home. He passed away.'”

Her father died around 8 p.m. while riding his motorcycle while trying to overtake another vehicle

Raina eventually found her feet, with the support of her family and friends, before disaster struck again.

Her best friend Oliva was killed in a traffic accident when they were both 17 and just months away from graduating high school.

“It was school holidays and we were about to enter our last semester. We were preparing to graduate. She already had her end of the year outfit ready. We were talking about the future. We were getting ready to go out into the world.”

“Losing both my father and my best friend is a pain I carry with me every day.”

Olivia was on her way home from a family reunion with her parents, Alan and Bev Harwood, when the accident happened. A truck failed to see a ute that had stopped to turn around, forcing it into the Harwoods’ vehicle.

“Olivia died at the scene. Bev was taken to hospital in critical condition and died six days later,” Raina said.

“I got a message saying, ‘I think Olivia Harwood has passed away.’ At first I honestly thought it was a rumor.

“I remember a sinking feeling, like everything just stopped.

“We had a whole life ahead of us, all these opportunities, and it made me realize how quickly everything can change. It can be taken away in a moment.”

The fear stayed with Raina long after the crash.

‘The following year I met my partner very early. He lived in Gladstone, and I think that’s when it all started to work,” she recalls.

‘I couldn’t drive properly to see him. I started having panic attacks. He had to follow me from Rockhampton to Gladstone.

“If a truck was coming my way I would just have a panic attack and have to pull over. When you live in rural Queensland you are surrounded by highways. You can’t avoid that risk.”

Raina shares her story ahead of Fatality Free Friday on May 26 and encourages drivers to think more deeply about the choices they make behind the wheel and the impact those decisions can have on others.

“Losing both my father and my best friend is a pain I still carry with me every day. The grief has shaped my life in such drastic ways. You’re constantly thinking about the conversations you can’t have, the milestones they shouldn’t be a part of.

“You also constantly wonder which versions of life never got the chance to happen. There’s a great sadness in that too.

“I miss my father very much. I miss Olivia very much. And I think that’s why I talk about this the way I do, because behind every traffic statistic there is a person. People whose lives are permanently changed by a single moment or a decision.

“It’s not just you. It’s all of us together. You can be the difference between coming home to the people you love, and people coming home to the people they love.

“That’s the responsibility I keep coming back to. The responsibility that lies between how we feel in a given moment and how we choose to act on it.”

Fatality Free Friday is on May 29. Visit ‘Join us on a journey’ to become a road safety champion today.

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