It's not every day you can challenge a former Wimbledon champion to a game of table tennis, but motorists passing through Bathurst yesterday were treated to that very opportunity.
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Australian tennis legend Pat Cash stopped by Bathurst's Driver Reviver station at Morse Park as part of a partnership with NRMA Insurance to raise awareness of the importance of taking a break on long journeys during the Easter period.
Cash said the event was a fun way to spread a vital road safety message.
"The idea is to remind drivers to take a break every couple of hours and not to push through if you start to feel tired," he said.
"It's a time of the year where many motorists are waking up early, trying to beat the traffic and push through fatigue and it's just not worth the risk."
Around one in four Australians are expected to drive on long distances throughout the Easter period and according to research from NRMA Insurance, more than four in five Australians admit they ignore advice to stop every two hours.
For Cash, it was the close call of a friend that encouraged him to become an advocate for taking regular breaks on long drives.
"My friend was driving along with his family one day when he started to experience the effects of a micro-sleep," he said.
"The next thing he knew, he had rolled the car into a ditch and while no one was hurt, hearing that story was a real wake-up call for me."
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Cash won the 1987 Wimbledon championship, defeating Czech great Ivan Lendl in straight sets and he started the trend of winners climbing the stands to celebrate.