Almost too real

First responders, students take part in ‘under-the-influence’ reality check

A police officer holds an IV bag while paramedics work to stabilize the youth inside the wrecked car. The kid is trapped and firefighters use the Jaws of Life to bust open the door to free her.

The girl in the back seat isn’t so lucky. She went through the back window during the crash and lies draped over the back of the car – dead.

Or at least in the mock disaster scenario she was dead.

Her classmates watch the whole thing unfold as a number of first response agencies work together in a car crash simulation designed to show students what can happen when you drive under impairment. In this case it’s drugs.

The girl responsible for the two-car crash is quickly singled out by police and an RCMP officer has her perform a few standard sobriety tests – walking the line and standing on one foot.

She fails miserably and the officer arrests her – hands behind her back, handcuffs on, escorted to the back seat of the RCMP SUV. Her next stop is jail.

There are no smiles, no jokes, even though this is just an exercise. It’s total concentration and focus by first responders. Police question the seemingly disoriented walking wounded. One youth yells that it isn’t fair. Perhaps in reference to his dead friend. If you didn’t know it was all staged – you wouldn’t know it was all staged.

Reality Check

“Two-vehicle MVA. It’s going to follow the MADD Canada program for impaired driving,” said Annapolis Royal Police Department’s Const. Jonathan Theriault prior to the simulation, “so as to give the students a reality check I guess you might want to call it just as they’re going into summer and graduation.”

Besides police, fire, and EHS, the local funeral home is involved, plus a local towing company. It’s all about not drinking or doing drugs and driving.

See ALMOST, page A3