A vehicle for change: Shepparton East’s campaign to save lives, honouring the memory of Tayla Barber

In November 2023, that pursuit was shaped by heartbreak.

Eighteen-year-old Tayla Barber, a talented young netballer and umpire at Shepparton East, was killed in a car crash just days before completing her final year of high school.

Exhausted from exams and a long shift at work, Tayla had taken her mother’s car for a short camping trip to Eildon.

On her way home, she likely fell asleep at the wheel.

It’s the kind of tragedy that arrives like a siren in the dark — sudden, disorienting, irreversible.

“She was due back the next day for work, exhausted and running on little sleep,” Tayla’s mother, Jenny Corish, said.

“I still remember the knock at the door … I truly thought whatever had happened, I would be there to support her. I was naive and numb to reality.”

From that moment, Shepparton East became more than a club. It became a vehicle for change.

Backed by the Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) Club Rewards Program, the Eagles have transformed their grief into a mission that echoes from the car park to the changing rooms, from the scoreboard to the social media feed.

Their message is simple: no family, no club, should have to endure what they’ve endured.

“We lost a friend, a teammate and someone with so much potential, all in an instant,” club president Stewart Cook said.

“Since then our club has come together, not only to grieve, but also to create lasting change.”

This isn’t the usual lip service often paid to road safety. It’s embedded.

Shepparton East has made safe driving culture not just a conversation, but a permanent fixture.

Posters line the walls. Drink bottles are printed with TAC messages.

At home games, its new digital scoreboard flashes road safety reminders between quarters and after every goal.

And when club events stretch into the night, buses are organised to ferry members home safely.

“Given our club's proximity to Shepparton, preventing drink-driving has long been a key focus,” Cook said.

“For all major club events such as our annual ball and Sunday Fun Day Reverse Draw where over 100 tickets are sold, we provide bus transport into Shepparton to ensure patrons can return safely.

“At smaller events, bar staff regularly assist with organising taxis, designated drivers, or even personally driving attendees home.”

Corish has become a quiet, but powerful voice within the campaign, speaking with the kind of raw clarity only someone who has suffered the worst can offer.

“Especially things like fatigue and distraction on the road — things we often dismiss or underestimate,” she said.

“These are real risks and they affect all of us, no matter our age or experience.”

Shepparton East’s push is as practical as it is emotional.

When the club’s under-18 footballers attended the Cool Heads Young Drivers Program, a Victoria Police initiative offering confronting, first hand insights in to road trauma, the message hit home.

For many, it was the first time they’d been asked to think beyond the wheel, beyond the weekend and into what driving really means — a responsibility as much as a rite of passage.

In Tayla’s memory, the club wants road safety to become habitual.

They don’t just want players to drive smart — they want them to feel a sense of duty to their mates, to their families, to their club.

“Community sporting clubs have an incredibly important role to play in road safety awareness,” Corish said.

“They’re not just places where people come to play sport — they’re support networks, families and trusted voices in their communities.

“At Shepparton East Football Netball Club, following the tragic loss of my daughter Tayla, a much-loved netballer and umpire, we’ve come to understand just how vital that role can be.”

It’s the kind of messaging that doesn’t scream for attention, but stays with you long after the final whistle. That’s the point.

Shepparton East is hardly alone in navigating the grief of road trauma.

But its commitment — visible, continuous and led from the top down — is a case study in how sporting communities can wield influence in ways that go far beyond a scoreboard.

Corish, too, has turned her pain into a purpose.

And she hopes Tayla’s story — full of potential that never got to be realised — can save others.

“It’s easy to become drowsy behind the wheel. It’s easy to have a lapse in concentration,” Corish said.

“It’s very easy to do the speed of the car in front of you, to go down those back roads and have little care for what the speed limit is.

“While clubs are passionate about teaching football and netball, we all need to be equally committed to mentoring our players to become respectful, responsible and community-minded individuals.”

It’s no longer just about honouring Tayla. It’s about changing outcomes. It’s about making the message louder than the siren ever was.

In this town, on a modest ground, one club has taken a personal tragedy and turned it into a communal vow.

Because at Shepparton East, road safety isn’t just a campaign.

It’s a promise.

One that starts with Tayla and, hopefully, ends with no more knocks at the door.