When an early-morning knock on the door woke Glenn and Sharon Bertalli 18 months ago, they feared the worst.
Glenn Bertalli remembers the feeling as police confirmed their 19-year old son Cody had been killed in a car accident.
"If you don't know what it's like waking up feeling like half your heart's missing every day ... I never knew what that meant when somebody told me it. I know what it does now."
The Bertallis have stepped up to share their story as reinforcement of this year's pre-Christmas police road-safety message.
In Victoria, assistant commissioner Doug Fryer has launched Operation Road Wise.
"It is not okay to speed a little bit. It is not safe to check your mobile phone. To drive while distracted, fatigued or impaired is a no-brainer -- it is fraught with danger."
Operation Safe Arrival is the name of the New South Wales blitz announced by its assistant commissioner, Michael Corboy.
"We get so upset. Everyone's using their mobile phones while they're driving. It's a cultural thing. We will still issue tickets, but people need to change the culture. People need to think about what they're doing."
Across the country, police are adding extra resources for mobile breath-analysis checks, licence and registration checks and speed traps.
They will also target another trend Victoria's Doug Fryer describes as extremely disturbing.
"Every time we turn an operation on around enforcing drug-driving, our strike rate comes in at around one in 10 people that we check are coming in positive. That's outrageous."
Despite additional warnings and police resources, the national road toll is increasing. At the end of November last year, more than 1,100 people had died on Australia's roads.
At the same time this year, that figure was up by almost 7 per cent. Only Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT* recorded fewer deaths.
Glenn Bertalli knows only too well the consequences. He offers an emotional warning against ignoring what can seem to be repetitive warnings.
"This year, we've been to that many 21sts (21st birthday parties), and we can't give our own son a 21st. (sobs ...) It's ... oh ..."
