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ALEXANDRA Viney, 22, is a survivor.
Her left arm was seriously injured in a car crash on December 14, 2010, the same day she was set to graduate from Launceston Church Grammar School.
Miss Viney, who grew up in Launceston, had a metal plate and a big, knotted wire embedded inside her arm for a year to help it recover, one of several operations.
She now has restricted movement in her left arm, and some loss of feeling in parts of her left hand, including her fingers, which requires her to use a hook to carry groceries.
But the Victorian resident, who now lives in Geelong, knows things could have ended differently.
As the then 18-year-old clung onto her fellow back-seat passenger Phoebe Taylor, and the Toyota Land Cruiser crashed and hurtled towards its final resting place, she thought she would die.
‘‘The last thing that I remember was a lifting feeling ... and I woke up from the pain in my arm,’’ Miss Viney said.
‘‘People have said, ‘You guys should not have walked away from that’.’’
On the night of the crash, she left her father a note saying ‘‘don’t wait up for me’’ because she was going out.
‘‘My dad still has that note and it was really hard ... because no parent wants to see a note left like that and then getting the call at 3am that your child’s in hospital,’’ Miss Viney said.
Despite the physical and emotional toll of the crash, she has faced these challenges head-on after first ‘‘running away’’ from her problems with a gap year in England.
Miss Viney now works as a pool lifeguard and personal trainer and enjoys helping people who have adaptive needs, just like her.
Importantly she said, no one asks about what happened to her arm because she wears long sleeves.
Miss Viney has also learnt to drive a modified automatic car, after first mastering a manual before the crash.
‘‘I had to get on with my life,’’ she said.
‘‘I can’t sit around and complain about it all day.
‘‘I just have to make small adaptations.’’
Miss Viney said now that the trial was over, she wanted to use her experience to help young people understand that getting behind the wheel after drinking could have tragic consequences.
She hopes to talk to school students in Geelong and in Tasmania, through the Road Safety Advisory Council here.
‘‘Don’t put your friends and family and other people in that situation,’’ Miss Viney said.
‘‘I’m happy to spread the message now; don’t do it.’’