MILDURA will on Monday morning cheer on Senior Constable Alex Prestney, who is running from Mildura to Melbourne’s police memorial for his brother Josh Prestney, one of four police officers killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy of 2020.
Sen-Constable Prestney is embarking on the 550km run in an effort to raise money and awareness for road trauma victims.
He says his late brother, who was very competitive with him on the running track, will be the inspiration to keep him going.
“When times get hard, I will picture him in front of me and I’ll be thinking 'I'm going to beat you, I'm going to keep you with me as if we are doing this together',” he said.
The avid runner will have his wife and baby as well as his parents driving in convoy with him, along with an intermittent Victoria Police presence.
He plans to run 30-35km daily for 19 days.
“The reason I wanted to do something like this is to try and improve things so the things that happened to my brother don't happen to other people,” he said.
The parents of Bria Joyce, the Mildura highway patrol officer killed in a crash last year, are expected to be there to see him off this morning.
“Collisions don't magically happen,” Sen-Constable Prestney said.
“They are caused by the actions of people behind the wheel in 99 of 100 cases. So driver behaviour needs to improve, driver education needs to be at the forefront of this to help people better understand the road and how to use it.”
Any money raised will be donated to the Amber Community, a grief-counselling and driver-education service in Melbourne.
“The Amber Community would much rather be doing the educational side of things than the counselling because that means there are less deaths on the roads,” he said.
While Sen-Constable Prestney is an experienced long-distance runner, he has never run this distance before and says he’s dreading the stretch between Ouyen and Sea Lake. That part of the route will take him away from the Calder Freeway and along back roads.
“I’m going via the boondocks, it's about 100km of going the back way … that part will be interesting,” he said. “That part will finish in the middle of nowhere.”
The 24-day journey will pass through places such as Wycheproof, Charlton, Bendigo and Kyneton.
Sen-Constable Prestney is an officer with the Knox highway patrol.
He says the grief he still suffers from the loss of his brother allows him to be a more compassionate policeman.
“There have been people who have been quite emotional at collisions and I have been able to relate to that,” he said.
The father of one will carry a photo of his brother, “every single leg that we do, under a sweat band or something”.
"Doing something like this is honouring him and so many other people as well.”
Donate or register your interest in the run online at run-for-road-trauma.raisely.com.
