Charlotte Dickason lost her son, Luke, in a horror crash near Elmore that claimed the lives of four people in March this year.

Luke and his mates were camping at Greens Lake when they told others they were heading out to collect firewood. What happened next is under investigation, but the result was an horrific scene 45 minutes from the campground.

”I want every person who gets behind the wheel of a car to know you need to be responsible. You can’t drink and drive. You need to be totally alert. You have to have your wits about you,’’ Charlotte said.

“And you need to look after your mates. Look out for your mates, because I haven’t got my mate now.’’

Charlotte talks about the trauma that came into her life the day her son became road toll victim number 245 this year:

TRAUMA is persistent.

For Charlotte Dickason, it follows her like a shadow.

She often finds herself smiling and drawing on beautiful memories, but most days she misses her boy.

She wants answers; wants to understand. It hurts.

And most of all, Charlotte doesn’t want any other parent to walk in her shoes.

Trauma came in the early hours of March 9 this year.

As the words were delivered in her lounge room, Charlotte’s body was overcome with nausea and heat. Then she was numb.

They were the words of a policewoman, charged with the distressing and delicate task of delivering a message no parent should ever hear.

“I’m sorry to inform you that your son was in a car accident and died at the scene” she said.

Charlotte’s husband, Craige, then had to ask - which son? Their twins were both out that night.

Luke, the youngest of the twins, was killed as a passenger in a car involved in a head-on collision on the Heathcote-Rochester Road at Burramboot late in the evening on March 8.

He had been camping at Greens Lake with mates.

The last words ‘Spooky Lukey’ said to his mother as he left that day were ‘seeya’ mum, I love ya’ mumma’.

 “They left and I never saw him again … it’s hard, it really is,’’ Charlotte recalls.

Charlotte remembers stirring in bed as flashlights appeared through the bedroom drapes in the early hours of March 9.

“I thought ‘oh my, the kids have forgotten their key for the door’,’’ she says.

Instead, police officers were asking to come in.

“My husband quickly got dressed while I wrestled with my dressing gown.  I went to the lounge, hubby had already let them in and what the police lady said I will never forget.

“I had so many questions, was Luke the driver, was it his car, are you sure it was Luke, who was with him, who was the other car?

“We knew Luke was camping with friends at Greens Lake.  

“It’s a very strange feeling to have my youngest son not with me anymore, so the search for answers was on.

“We drove to where the accident happened and encountered a police road block.  

“The police radioed ahead, while we waited in the car. The sun was hot and the flies were relentless.

“It seemed an eternity we waited, the police arrived, we had many, many questions, I was still in disbelief, I wanted to hold his hand, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed, he is my son.’’

Luke’s injuries were so severe, Charlotte and Craige were allowed to sit with him at the funeral home, but never allowed to view or hold him to say goodbye.

As the Victoria Police Major Collision Investigation Unit continued their investigations, Charlotte provided a DNA sample to establish her son’s identity.

“Have you ever read an autopsy report, have you ever read about what’s in the body bag, it’s very graphic in words,’’ she says.

The following days were a blur. Luke’s friends visited and returned his camping gear. His swag still sits in his room, alongside his camp cooker, unused gifts from his last birthday, his plastering tool bag, equipment used as a volunteer with the Woodvale CFA, neatly folded handkerchiefs and toy trucks from many years before. The shelves are still lined with his favourite David Beckham aftershave and trinkets gathered from times spent with friends.

“Luke was always the organised one, always had everything, always was the friend you could rely on,’’ Charlotte says.

“His friends often said, ‘we don’t need that or we forgot that, don’t worry, Dicko has it’.’’

Nine months later, Charlotte, Craige , Luke’s brothers, David and Jesse, and his girlfriend Laura are still trying find a new normal.

“Luke and I spend the days together,’’ Charlotte says. “He is always with me.

“But I want everyone to know Luke Lawrence Dickason was 18 years and four months old when he died in a motor vehicle collision, as a passenger. His mate was driving at excessive speed, alcohol on-board and inexperienced driving which resulted in a true road toll trauma.  

“If there is anything to come from this tragedy it is look out for your mates always, be responsible, don’t be a hoon as you will become a statistic for road toll.

“The boys made a very bad decision, they made a stupid decision, doing burn outs and this is the result. They died. And two innocent people died.

“Before we were touched by tragedy, we would never have understood what that meant.

“Now, every time you see something bad on the television, another fatality, you feel so much for their families because you have been through that yourself.

“I want every person who gets behind the wheel of a car to know you need to be responsible. You can’t drink and drive. You need to be totally alert. You have to have your wits about you.

“And you need to look after your mates.

“Look out for your mates, because I haven’t got my mate now.’’

A LINE IN THE SAND: HEED THE ROAD SAFETY MESSAGE