Friday 8 December 2017

Farewell Beresfield Driver Reviver.

BY DANIELLE RIES

Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald has thanked the Morisset Lions Club for their 30-year commitment and dedication to the Driver Reviver program.

The program has been operating for three decades, with the Morisset Lions Club spending 23 years operating the program at Beresfield.

The holiday period is one of the busiest times for the Driver Reviver program has volunteers hand out roughly 15 thousand cups of tea and coffee at the Beresfield Station.

From the first of January 2018, the program at Beresfield will be moved as construction work will be undertaken on the M1 Motorway to upgrade Weakley's Drive and the John Renshaw Drive intersection at Beresfield McDonalds.

Scot MacDonald says this program was and still is a great initiative.

"It's those caravans that you see on the side of the road, strategic points where people have been travelling for a couple of hours, that's when fatigue sets in. Of course, the one at Beresfield was one of the more better-known ones, it was at the end of the old F3 and now the M1.

"It really was an important point for people to get a stop there, have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, have a chat, just get revived before they go on their long journey."

He also explains this program has been a vital initiative in saving many lives of motorists.

"They've probably saved many, many lives because fatigue is still one of our biggest killers. We've had a lot of improvements in roads and cars and all those sorts of things like RBT over the years.

"I think the Morisset Lions and all the other Lions clubs have done an absolutely magnificent community service over the years."

Scot MacDonald explains there will be other driver reviver stations still available.

"Unfortunately the space is unavailable but there are other rest stops available to the north and to the east."

Credit- Lions Club International Members Website.