Published: May 09, 2008 11:16 am            

Scare tactics

officials attempt to educate and curb drinking and driving

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

If one looked closely at the four bloodied wreck victims who lay sprawled out across the Corbin High School practice field Thursday morning, there was some slight movement under those white sheets.

The students, who played dead while the entire student body looked on, were the victims of a drunk driver during a mock scenario designed to scare teens straight when it comes to drinking and driving.

Earlier in the week, Corbin High School students Austin Anders, Jared Martin, Megan Ledington, Verne Peters, Erica Clark, Allison Hart, Ariel Salmons, Kyle McAuliffe and Michael Baird made an audio recording with the media department describing a party, a group of drunk teens driving home from it, and the squealing tires and screams just before the crash.

The entire student body listened to the audio recording in their classrooms before heading outside to the practice field, where they found the wrecked car, fake blood, and real emergency response crews.

“We try to do it every couple of years,” said Corbin High School teacher Jessica Ledington, who helped organize the event. “The kids who are seniors saw it as freshman and we had three classes who had never seen one, so we felt like it would make a pretty good impact ... I know there were positive comments afterward and it generated a lot of classroom discussion.”

An Airvac helicopter landed on the field and responded to the scene to carry away “victim” CHS nurse Jennifer McDaniel. Other agencies responding were the Corbin Fire Department, Corbin Police Department, Whitley County EMS and Knox County EMS. Nantz Brothers Towing of Corbin donated the car for the wreck and answered questions from students.

“It’s worth taking time out of your day to do something like this,” Ledington said, adding that traffic crashes are the number one killer of 15 to 20-year-olds in the U.S.

Four of the students involved in the crash “died” from their injuries, and the student driver responsible for the tragedy was arrested and charged with their deaths and driving under the influence.

“It’s just like doing a traffic stop, except you had an audience this time,” said Corbin Sgt. David Maiden, who gave a field sobriety test and arrested the student with the assistance of Officer Rick Baker. “Basically, we’re hoping that the kids look at this and ... it’s making them think. Everyone knows someone who died in a car accident, whether it was DUI related or not.”

The Whitley County Coroner’s office helped organize the mock crash before Corbin’s Saturday prom. A video of a mock crash was also shown to Whitley County High School students two weeks ago before their prom, but Corbin’s event is the only one locally in which the entire student body is invited out to witness the wreck live.

“It’s just a way to show reality to some of the kids,” said Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley. “This is a mock crash but then again, this is a daily occurrence, maybe not in Whitley County, but it is a daily occurrence nationally.”

Croley said the mock wreck isn’t just a good teaching tool for the students — it’s also training for law enforcement and emergency personnel who respond to the scene with rescue equipment and give a real-life sobriety test to the student.

“It’s just a way to give realization to life situations, and there’s no other way to do it,” Croley said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat this.”



Samantha Swindler can be reached at sswindler@thetimestribune.com

        

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