Mock accident illustrates dangers of DWI
The “accident” happened in front of Dexter High School at about 11 a.m. April 30 — right on schedule.
Although the accident was simulated, it represented an event that is one of the calls police, firefighters, paramedics and emergency room personnel dread the most: A high school student who had been drinking got behind the wheel of a car with two classmates as passengers. The car struck three students in a crosswalk in front of the school and then rolled several times, ending up next to a light pole.
The three in the crosswalk were declared dead at the scene. One of the passengers, Tonya Smith, was transported by Dexter Fire & Rescue ambulance to Roswell Regional Hospital. The other, Mitchell Davee, was airlifted to Eastern New Mexico Medical Center by a Southwest Medevac helicopter.
The driver, who was uninjured, was arrested and transported to the Chaves County Juvenile Detention Center in Roswell.
It was all part of the Chaves County Youth Awareness “Every 15 Minutes” program, based on the statistic that one person dies every 15 minutes as a result of an accident involving alcohol. All involved, students, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and emergency room personnel, were volunteers. Parents agreed to the participation of their children in the program.
Smith was the student taken to Roswell Regional. Robert Sanchez, manager of the Roswell Regional emergency room, said Smith was diagnosed with multiple traumatic injuries.
Her parents were brought in and she underwent a simulated CAT scan.
“The doctor came out and said there was really nothing to do at this point, and asked if the child was an organ donor,” he added. “Our child had actually discussed organ donation with her parents.”
Sanchez said Roswell Regional participates in the program every year.
“The whole program is designed to bring reality to drinking and driving,” he explained. “It does cause death to youth.”
As another part of the program, a student was pulled out of Dexter High every 15 minutes and became one of what Wells referred to as the “living dead,” again representing the statistic. Law enforcement officers and police chaplains delivered death notices to the parents.
After the “accident,” students participating in the program were fed lunch on the grounds of the Chaves County Courthouse and then witnessed a mock trial of the driver involved in the accident, Wells said.
They were given a tour of the Chaves County Juvenile Detention Center, where they saw their classmate dressed in stripes and behind bars, and then taken to Anderson-Bethany Funeral Home.
The students, including the accident victims, the driver and the 15 “living dead” students, walked in on a funeral, which turned out to be a mock funeral of one of the participants, Daniel Fuller, watched his father, a local minister, conducting his funeral, Wells said.
From the funeral home, the students were taken to the Dexter Fire Department, where they were served grilled hamburgers and listened to some guest speakers, all victims or survivors of accidents involving drunk drivers. Then students went out to a go-cart course. They were given “fatal vision” goggles that simulated different levels of impairment, such as blood alcohol levels of .04, .08 and 1.0, and allowed to try to negotiate the obstacle course with the go-carts.
Then students were brought in and wrote letters to the parents which began, “Dear Mom and Dad, Every 15 minutes, someone dies as a result of an alcohol-related collision. Today I died and I never got the chance to tell you …” and they added what they wanted to tell their parents. Meanwhile, their parents were writing letters to the students.
The next morning, May 1, students participating in the program, along with families and friends, gathered with the student body of Dexter High for an assembly, Wells said. The student driver from the “accident” talked about being arrested, handcuffed and taken to the CCJDC, where he was given a shower and put in jail until the mock trial.
“Two or three of the dead on scene related their experiences, and Dan Fuller talked about walking in on his own funeral,” Wells said.
“We did something kind of different this year,” she added. “The assembly started with the Roswell Honor Guard bagpiper playing, ‘Amazing Grace.’”
Students who wanted to read the letters to their parents out loud and some of the parents read their letters.
Organizers did something else they had never done: They posed questions to the students, who were allowed to text “yes” or “no” with their cell phones. Questions included, “Have you ever driven while under the influence of alcohol?” and “Have you been a passenger in a vehicle with someone driving drunk?”
The assembly, which began at 9:15 a.m., had to be cut short at 12:15 p.m. so students could be served lunch, since the school kitchen was scheduled to close at 12:30 p.m.
About 12:30 or 1 p.m., the “living dead” students and their parents, who had not seen one another since they were taken out of class Thursday, were reunited at a catered lunch.
“The whole time they were with us, as soon as we pull them out of class, we take their cells phones,” she explained. “They can’t have contact (with their families), they can ‘t call home. They are nonexistent for the rest of the day they’re with us. It’s very hard on the kids and really hard on the families, so we always try to have a nice reunion.”
She said the ordeal benefits the family relationship. “The whole program really just brings them together and gives them a whole new understanding of each other,” she added.
All those involved in Every 15 Minutes are volunteers, she said, and include firefighters, paramedics and police officers “who just got tired of having to run (respond to accidents) on kids that had been in alcohol-related incidents.”
Renee Cox, EMS chief of Midway Fire & EMS Department, discovered the nationwide program and instituted it in Chaves County in 1999, according to a Chaves County Youth Awareness brochure. The program has been conducted at one or more schools in the county every year since then.
“Renee was instruments in recruiting volunteers to assist her,” the brochure states. “This group of volunteers, now know as the Chaves County Youth Awareness, have hosted this program” at local high schools including Roswell, Goddard, Hagerman, Lake Arthur and Dexter.
Wells said volunteers told the students that if the program makes a difference in one of their lives, it was successful.
“We do it because we love kids, because we want to help them make good choices and make good decisions for themselves,” she said.
Volunteers for 2009 listed in the brochure were Justin Powell, Cox, Barry Dixon, Ron Chambers, Joni Sterritt, Diane Taylor, Sean Lee, Jesse Davis, Kirk Wood, Ed Ward, Mary Leininger, Charles Corn, Lupe Fuentez, Wells, Cindy Blake, James Salas, Loralee Hunt, Jeannie V. Madsen, Georgeanne Hunt, Danielle Irvin, Christ Gutierrez, Rissie Daubert, Glenn Trammell and Jan Bell, in addition to the Dexter Fire & EMS Department, Dexter Police Department and Dexter High School.
CONTACT: Mike Bush, 575-317-6249