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Mock fatality used to discourage prom drinking

By Angie Oravec 5 min read

With prom night right around the corner, local firefighters and emergency officials drove home a message to the 2006 graduating class about the dangers of drinking and driving during a mock fatal accident at the Albert Gallatin Area High School Tuesday morning. Senior students watched as emergency crews worked to extricate one of their fellow students who was pretending to be entrapped in a vehicle during the mock two-vehicle, head-on collision set up in the high school parking lot.

Six students with the school’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) program participated in the mock accident. Two feigned their death and others faked injury. Another student feigned ejection from a vehicle. One of the student drivers pretended to be drinking and driving and was arrested for the crime.

A STAT Medevac medical helicopter even landed at the scene to transport a student from the crash. No students were actually transported due to liability issues.

Deputy coroners from the Fayette County Coroner’s office bagged the pretend dead, noting the cause of the crash was blunt force trauma.

SADD Advisor Jared Plisko said the mock crash lets students know that they too are not invincible and can be subject to such a crash if they plan to drink and drive.

“This could happen to you,” Plisko said, adding that if the mock accident has an impact on one student, it has done its job.

Kevin and Mary Ellen Jones, the real-life parents of one of the students who feigned their death, stood at the scene of the accident, tears standing in their eyes. So upset with the pretend death of his daughter, Kevin Jones, a teacher at the high school, acted as if he wanted to fight Travis Embacher, the student driver whose car collided into the vehicle Jones’ daughter was inside.

With bloodstains on his shirt and face and hands, Embacher, a member of SADD, said he doesn’t drink, but if he did, this would be enough to cause him to rethink doing so.

Embacher said while two students lay imitating their death, he just walked out of the vehicle still drinking beer.

Embacher also said he was startled to realize he would be arrested after the incident. Fairchance Police Officer Brian Miller conducted the mock arrest.

During Albert Gallatin’s prom scheduled for Friday at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa, where the post-prom party will also be held, students are using their own means of transportation to attend, according to AG SADD President and senior student, Laura Show.

Show, who also participated in the mock accident, said high school students make a lot of stupid decisions and she hopes kids her age can realize the risks associated with drinking and driving.

The decision to drink and drive can result in a fatal traffic accident, such as that which students witnessed firsthand Tuesday, she said.

Show said it’s a decision that doesn’t just affect the students, but also the lives of other people, including parents, friends and the community.

Katie Miner, treasurer of SADD, was also among the students with SADD to participate in the mock fatal accident.

Miner feigned being entrapped in the vehicle and volunteer firefighters had to use the “Jaws of Life” to extricate her. She pretended to be flown from the scene.

“It’s scary to be in that scenario and wonder what if this was really happening to you and what if I really had to be taken out on a stretcher,” said Miner.

And while the volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel saw the mock accident drill as practice for a real-life scenario, they also saw it as a practice in saving lives.

“If this drill saves one life, it was worth doing,” said Tim “Bubba” Sutton, EMT supervisor with Fairchance Firemen’s Ambulance that checked the pulses of student actors for signs of life during the drill.

And, rarely do students get the chance to see such a simulated accident firsthand, something that really drives home the point of no drinking and driving during an important time of the year as the traditional event that is part of the culmination of graduating seniors’ high school career nears.

Sutton said students seeing every stage of the accident up close and personal allows them to understand the consequences of their actions and choices.

“They can truly understand that alcohol and operating a vehicle doesn’t mix,” he said. “And hopefully, seeing the consequences and repercussions of that and the expressions on mom and dad’s faces impacted those students.”

The high school’s SADD program, which has involvement from 90 high school students, along with the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department (VFD) coordinated the event.

Smithfield VFD First Assistant Chief Randy Leech, who coordinated the drill, said the drill was useful for everyone involved.

“You learn something new every time you put a tool in your hand,” said Leech.

Leech said about five to six accidents in the fire department’s coverage area each year involve students, while one of two of those are accidents where someone involved has died.

Eric Steinmiller, fire police captain with Smithfield VFD, said the fire department responds to a good number of vehicle accidents involving alcohol, speed or youth.

“After visualizing, hearing and smelling the scenes from the accident, hopefully no one will want to ever go through that,” Steinmiller said.

Steinmiller said the mock accident was the first held at the high school since around 15 years ago. Steinmiller said Bruce Graham, who conducted fire prevention classes with students, laid the groundwork for the mock drill during the past few years.

“He is the reason why we were able to do it today,” said Steinmiller. Graham stepped down from his post as Smithfield VFD chief earlier this year for health reasons, Steinmiller added.

“It went great,” added Leech about the mock drill.

Besides Smithfield VFD and fire police, Fairchance Volunteer Fire Department and Firemen’s Ambulance and Uniontown Firemen’s Ambulance participated in the mock drill.

Firefighters said they plan to put on the mock fatal accident next year as well.

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