Students get a close-up look at effects of drunk driving

Emergency responders recreate fatal crash before prom

Rappahannock County High School students and county emergency responders simulated a fatal car crash last Friday, hoping to teach young drivers about the dangers and consequences of impaired driving, before the prom the next day.

Fire and rescue volunteers and police officers filled the school campus as they responded to the scene of a simulated head-on collision. The simulation has been performed for two years in a row in an effort to stave off accidents and impaired driving after the prom.

Kathryn Waters, recruitment and retention coordinator for the Rappahannock County Fire and Rescue Department and healthcare professions teacher, has organized the simulation for the past two years. Waters said the simulation also serves as a practice run for emergency responders, who don’t get called to many serious crashes in the county.

“Within our county, with the volunteers, we don’t get to run these level of car accidents every single day, or every single month. So this is also an incredible learning opportunity for the students, but it’s also incredible training for our volunteer system as well,” Waters said. “I wanted to make it as realistic as possible with as many factors that play into a real-life scenario.”

Students watched somberly as Waters’ class acted out the scenario, playing impaired drivers, crash casualties and injured passengers, wailing and screaming in horror as emergency responders treated them, loading them onto gurneys and performing field sobriety tests. One student took a ride in a medevac helicopter called in from Culpeper, and another was loaded into the back of a hearse.

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Alexis Perry, a sophomore, acted as an injured passenger in the simulation. Perry just got her driver’s license, and she said being in the simulation really drove home the importance of being aware of your surroundings and driving safely. She hopes her classmates come away from the event with similar insights.

“It’s not a pretty scene,” Perry said.

Sheriff’s deputy Chris Ubben, school safety resource officer and member of the School Board, said this is an exciting time for students, but events like prom and senior skip day often bring an uptick in accidents. Ubben said showing students a crash scene can bring dangers they are told to avoid into their reality.

“When you’re young, you think, ‘it doesn’t affect me, it won’t happen to me, it’ll happen to somebody else.’ It doesn’t hit home. This brings it home. This makes it real. This makes it in-your-face without being overly graphic…it shows the drama, it shows the grief, it shows the trauma, and it shows how bad it really can be,” Ubben said.

Ubben said parents need to proactively have conversations about drunk driving and road safety with their kids, and make sure they know where their children are going and who they are with after parties and events like the prom. An open line of communication can be key in keeping students safe.

Waters said if students learn just one thing from the crash simulation, she hopes it is to think before they act.

“Some actions, you can’t take back,” Waters said.

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