00:00For those 22 minutes, I genuinely believed that I was in life-threatening danger.
00:04I know that 22 minutes later we found out that he was a contractor and that I was safe,
00:08but my body went through the belief. It was 10pm on a Tuesday night when comedian Laura
00:15Johnston's car broke down on the way back from a gig, leaving her stranded on a quiet road in
00:22regional New South Wales. So I call roadside assistance, they say 120 minute wait. I go,
00:28sweet, can do that, and I chill in my car. 20 minutes later a random car pulls up really fast
00:35and parks directly next to me. I freak out because I'm all alone and it's night time in a small
00:41town,
00:42and this is the only other person that I've seen in a long time. A guy gets out of his
00:46car and comes
00:48up to my driver's side door, aggressively motions for me to open my door or put down my window. He
00:53says, I'm NRMA, and I go, identification please, like prove to me, verify that you are with NRMA.
01:00He ends up swearing at me, he ends up going, well you, and then storms back to his car and
01:05yells over
01:06his shoulder, you're just going to have to wait until the guys from Canberra come now.
01:10Which, given that his back window was broken and he had no branding and I hadn't received a phone call
01:17or a text letting me know that he was on his way. Terrifying to hear because what do you mean
01:21the guys
01:22plural from Canberra are coming to my location where I am stuck in my car. Unfortunately, the 27 year
01:28old comedian's story is not unique. Since making her story public, many have come forward with their
01:35own harrowing accounts of becoming stranded on regional and rural roads. I've been in a similar
01:42situation in regional WA. As a single mum that travels to rural locations regularly,
01:48I would like to be safe. The roads I travel have a large amount of missing people last seen nearby.
01:55I don't want to be a statistic. As a 20 year old woman traveling alone at night in country
02:00Victoria for work, my car broke down and was not drivable. I was lucky that the breakdown service
02:07people were so kind. So Laura started a petition on change.org in the hopes of convincing roadside
02:15assist companies to implement a simple solution. She's asking that the companies introduce a unique
02:22verification code system that contractors can quote upon arrival to ensure they are who they say they are.
02:30It's a similar system that has already worked well for rideshare drivers.
02:35I ended up having a meeting with the CEO and the head of roadside assistance of NRMA. They,
02:41in that meeting, said that they were committed to adopting a code, which is what I wanted. Yay!
02:47And so far, her advocacy has already led multiple companies to introduce the new safety procedure.
03:06So, please stop paying their permission.
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