Pa. Mock Accident Shows Dangers of Distracted Driving
May 28--TROY -
The horror of a serious car accident can seem unreal.
Luckily, the two-car collision in the Troy High School parking lot Tuesday was just that -- unreal.
A mock car crash was staged in the parking lot for students in grades 9-12 to teach them about the danger of distracted driving. Two wrecked vehicles had been placed against one another, as if they had crashed, as police and emergency responders arrived.
Five students, the Troy Police Department, Western Alliance EMS and the Troy Volunteer Fire Department worked together in responding to the mock accident. On a hillside beside the parking lot, the student body watched the scene. Students Paige Nowacoski, Ryan Reeves, Axel Greene, Lizzy Morgan and Kayla Stephani were the actors in the mock crash.
According to high school principal Sue Shipman, the mock accident was made possible with the State Farm "Celebrate My Drive" grant that the school received last year.
She said if the mock accident made just one student think about the danger of texting while driving, it was worth it.
As the mock accident began, a female student could be heard screaming repeatedly, followed by the sound of sirens.
In the scenario being played out, three students were supposed to be injured and one was supposed to be killed. The driver was supposed to be uninjured, and police pretended to arrest him as part of the exercise. Emergency workers went through the process involved in extricating someone from a vehicle, as they carried out the mock rescue.
Shipman thought that the mock accident was making an impact on the students.
"It's pretty quiet," she said, noting that only a few were talking. "They seem pretty engaged."
William Dixon, a paramedic supervisor with Western Alliance, provided the narration for the mock crash. According to Dixon, the mock accident was supposed to have been caused by one car coming through an intersection and T-boning the other car.
Bradford County Coroner Tom Carman, who also took part in the program, spoke to the students, following the mock crash.
"Fortunately, this was a mock situation," he said. "Unfortunately, periodically we do see some fatality crashes as a result of texting and driving." He spoke of two distracted driving incidents that have happened in the county.
"Try not to do that and catch yourself," he said.
Carman told the students that if he needs to use his phone while traveling, he always pulls over to use it. When distracted driving is taking place, he said it's so easy to cross over the center line on the road, without even realizing it.
"Keep it safe out there," he said.
Troy Police Officer Frank Monroe told the students that over his career, he has seen a lot of young people killed in car accidents, and he noted that the "common denominators" are speed, alcohol and now texting.
He recalled speaking to a young person recently downtown, who was texting at an intersection and his car started to move, resulting in a violation.
"I talked to him and he says he knows better and he doesn't want to get a ticket," he said. "I told him that that's important not to get a ticket, it's important not to get points on your license, but more importantly that is, he should be thinking he doesn't want to kill someone."
"There is a reason things are against the law and we tend to think too often about the points or the fine, but we need to think why something is against the law, and it's for public safety. People die in car accidents. Car accidents are caused by certain things. So, that's just something I want you to remember for today."
Troy Fire Chief Roy Vargson said, "I hope everybody in this group got something out of this."
"This happens, we don't want to see it happen," he said.
Shipman told the students, "we need to be careful and we need to think. No one's life is worth an LOL or an OMG."
She told the students that if they find themselves in a vehicle with someone who is texting while driving, they need to make a stand for themselves, and say, 'you've got to stop this. Let me out of the vehicle, if you insist on doing this when you're behind the wheel.'"
Troy School Board Deb Harer, who owns a State Farm office in Troy and played the instrumental role in encouraging participation in "Celebrate My Drive," thought the mock crash was a good thing for the students to experience, noting that State Farm was emphasizing "Two Eyes on the Road, Two Hands on the Wheel" with "Celebrate My Drive."
In the "Celebrate My Drive" contest, the public was asked to support Troy High School and new drivers by making "safe driving commitments" on behalf of the high school once daily online from Oct. 18-26.
The top schools with the most safe driving commitments were awarded grants.
Troy High School received $25,000, one of 100 schools that won. Harer said thousands of schools were competing.
A total of 11,000 safe driving commitments were made in Troy.
Shipman said the students received business cards with messages to deter them from texting and driving.
Eric Hrin can be reached at (570) 297-5251; email: reviewtroy@thedailyreview.com.
Copyright 2014 - The Daily Review, Towanda, Pa.
