Mock Crash Drives Home Very Real Dangers to High Schoolers

A press release from the Fairfield Fire Department:

Last Thursday shortly after 9:30 in the morning, the sound of screeching tires and blaring horns cut through the misty hazed harbinger of imminent rain on an otherwise peaceful day near the front entrance of Fairfield Warde High School.

Voices of students in distress echoed off the building’s brick façade, and faculty and students lined the sidewalk to watch as tarps were pulled off two wrecked cars spilling over with occupants crying out in distress in the grassy center circle. Confrontations ensued, emergency calls were made, and the air filled with a cacophony of sirens as police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances swarmed the scene.

This was not a routine motor vehicle accident for Fairfield’s first responders, but rather the first of two demonstrations held every year for nearly a decade to vividly illustrate to both Junior Classes of Fairfield’s Ludlowe and Warde High Schools the hazards of driving distracted or under the influence in advance of their proms that coming weekend. 

Under the direction of Guidance Counselors Timothy Morris at Ludlowe and Stephanie Swist at Warde, student reenactors rehearsed their roles for several weeks in advance of these “Mock Crashes”, preparing their performance as driver or passenger, bystander or patient. The counselors scheduled participating agencies and made arrangements for the vehicles to be brought, distressed to simulate the crash, and removed afterwards, while Parent Teacher Associations distributed materials and provided pizza for the students involved.

At Warde on Thursday and Ludlowe on Friday, guest speakers took the microphone prior to each demonstration to offer their first-hand knowledge of the hazards of driving under the influence, and the ongoing repercussions to countless lives. 

Next the audiotape of car conversation began to play through the speakers set up on the perimeter, the sounds of a crash reverberating across the parking lot, and the revealed accident played out before each assembled Junior classes. 

Students watched silently as their peers called in the emergency, accused or attempted to help one another, and interacted with incoming Fairfield Police and Fire officers and firefighters, American Medical Response paramedics and EMTs, as they performed their duties at the simulated accident. 

One driver was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, passengers were extricated by fire personnel using hydraulic tools, patients were removed by long board and stretcher to awaiting ambulances which pulled away from the scene, and the last victim was placed in the back of a black van from Lesko Polke Funeral Home serving in place of the State Medical Examiner.

After hearing a few brief closing remarks, the Juniors filed quietly into their respective auditoriums, where administrators and participants in the Mock Crash spoke about what they’d seen and done. Fairfield Fire and Police alongside AMR personnel lined the aisle as mute reminder of the many resources brought together that morning to teach and protect the young residents. 

In closing, Headmaster James Coyne on Thursday at Warde and Headmaster Greg Hatzis on Friday at Ludlowe wished a safe and memorable Junior Prom to all in attendance and sent them back to their classes, emergency vehicles pulled away from the parking lots and returned to their assignments, and the Ludlowe and Warde High School Junior Proms went off the following night without event.