A lifetime of serving the community
It’s probably not surprising that the Driving Change Network attracts the sort of people who live to serve their communities. Tim Hartnell, Programme Manager at Proactive Drive is no exception.
I dared to call him an awesome person when I asked to interview him for this article. He promptly turned down this title and responded that he “just like(s) helping people”.
While he’s clearly not a fan of the spotlight being on him, it’s often the quiet folks like Tim who should make the spotlight, so I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the man behind the folded arms.
Tim started his career and driving journey on the farms of Canterbury.
“The first vehicle I drove was a David Brown 950 tractor at the age of 8 years old. I continued driving on the farm with all types of vehicles including cars. At the age of 15 I sat my licence all in one day gaining my full licence. I was taught by my father and did a lot of driving on gravel roads in a manual van.”
While his day jobs focussed on farming, customer service, sales, management, and a twelve-year stint in the New Zealand Police force, Tim has been an avid community volunteer since 1989.
For twenty-five years if there was a missing person or natural disaster in the Canterbury region Tim was probably there on the frontlines leading a team, getting stuck in to the rescuing or providing support directly to those affected. Tim has been there for floods, fires, snowstorms, the Canterbury quakes and the terrorist attacks. He even trained up and handled the beautiful Zac, a Labrador Retriever who worked with Tim on Search and Rescue missions for 8 years.
These days you’ll find Tim at the frontlines of a different kind of community need – the need for education in the driving space.
“Having spent 12 years in The New Zealand Police doing both general duties and traffic I have seen what happens when wrong decisions are made and I am a passionate believer that the level of training in NZ needs to improve along with our attitude to driving. I am keen to give of my time to assist with this in any way I can.”
Tim joined the Driving Change Network team in 2020, where he serves on the Steering Group as well as the Education in Schools, and Best Practice and Training focussed work streams. He brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to the team. His time in the Police and in Search and Rescue have given him a wealth of safe driving knowledge that he now shares with his community through Proactive Drive. Check out this award winning short film about the programme Tim helps run.
Tim reckons driving education should start in schools, and that a good base of safety focussed information would make a real difference. He’s a firm believer that licences are undervalued, and that there isn’t enough information accessible to everyone about how to be a safe driver.
“It brings so much joy to me when I see a person gain their licence and the impact it has on their lives both socially and also enabling many of them to gain employment. One in particular that I remember is a person who had sat on their Learners licence for nearly 30 years and was driving to and from work each day. The joy on their face was almost overwhelming and they followed up with me six months later to say that because of their licence 3 others in their family had also progressed their licence and they had been given a promotion at work directly related to their licence”
So there we have a small glimpse into the man behind the folded arms. Tim is a fountain of knowledge on driver safety, and a pretty amazing teaching resource to the people of Canterbury. He’s gone from the front-lines in times of urgent community need, to being on the front-lines of the communities ongoing need for driver safety education.
Thanks for everything you do Tim!