Mr Wrangle lost his 19-year-old son, Trevor, in a single-vehicle crash in Langwarrin on October 9, 2004 - the day of the federal

election. He still can't face voting at election booths, nor drive past the crash site.

The Ride, a motorcycle trek by SES road-rescue volunteers from Pakenham-Toowoomba for road trauma victims, sets out on October 9, the anniversary of Trevor's death.

"It made me shudder. I will be there for the launch," Mr Wrangle said.

In recent years, he has been on his own road-safety crusade. In 2008, he appeared in a TAC safety campaign, Pictures of You, with nine other grieving families.

He has repeatedly visited 'hoon schools' to convey a cautionary tale of Trevor's needless high-speed death and to tell the 'hoons' they're lucky they're not in jail.

His no-holds-barred account of the grief of losing his eldest child features on the Road Trauma Support Services Victoria website.

It tells how Trevor died after just completing his landscape gardening apprenticeship and three weeks shy of his 20th birthday.

"For many months I cried myself to sleep asking the question 'why, why, why?' I still ask the question 'why why why' everyday and yes, some nights now go to sleep with wet eyes," he wrote. "Losing a child is a life-changing event; nothing is ever the same again."

Mr Wrangle campaigns for a simple reason: he doesn't want others to have to go through what he has. "The pain never goes. It just goes a bit further back in the mind."

The Ride will be a 4000-kilometre, nine-day odyssey selling road safety messages at secondary schools by day and hearing the stories of road trauma victims at night. Mr Wrangle said the concept was a "sensational idea".

"There are lots of people around who have gone through the same thing and they tend not to speak up. It might encourage other people to tell their stories."

Shayne Honey, who will ride the journey with fellow Pakenham SES road rescuer Peter Morrison-Dowd, said the team was honing a 'six-second' road-safety theme.

"Our key message is that every six seconds, someone in the world dies on the road. Before you text and drive, drink and drive or take a car to a party, think for six seconds."

Mr Honey urged people to 'like' The Ride's facebook page at facebook.com/ridebeyondthe trauma or follow them on twitter

@RideBeyonTrauma

 5a0; The Ride is seeking corporate sponsors. To help, call Shayne Honey on 0432164679 or Peter Morrison-Dowd on 0417856083.