New Year's Eve is a time for celebration, but for one NSW teenager it stirs up the darkest of memories.
After losing her best friend — and nearly her own life — in a car crash, Tahlia Mardini has become the face of a new road safety campaign.
On New Year's Eve in 2018, the girls' split-second decision to get a lift to a party from 19-year-old Yassin El Seidi changed everything.
"He flew around every corner he possibly could," Ms Mardini said.
"But being a young girl, I was too scared to say something. And then my memory just went blank."
It's been three long years since Ms Mardini was pulled from the car wreck at Yagoona, southwest of Sydney, that left her best friend Tegan dead.
Now 19, she still thinks about it every day, but is turning her pain into progress.
"I just got to a point where I was like: no, I can't keep crying myself to sleep every night and getting upset over something that's already happened. I need to make something of this," Ms Mardini said.
So she's fronting a new road safety campaign, launched today, focusing on the forgotten victims.
"There's been more than 9000 head injuries from crashes over the last five years," the Centre for Road Safety's Bernard Carlon told 9News.
And of the 292 fatalities on the state's roads this year, nearly half have been due to speeding.
Ms Mardini had to undergo 25 surgeries and learn to walk again, but she considers herself lucky.
This week, she will celebrate New Year's Eve with her family at home.
Ms Mardini hopes that sharing her story will encourage other motorists to think not just about themselves when they jump behind the wheel this holiday period.
She says for every life her message saves, Tegan is smiling down at her.
"I'd rather be five minutes late in this life than five minutes early into your next life in heaven," Ms Mardini said.
"You've got to be mindful, responsible and safe. A brain injury is a life sentence."
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