“Get that dead guy out of my way!” paramedic Jason Basnett yelled.
At the mock drunk driving accident at Porter Creek Secondary School on Tuesday, Basnett walked into the midst of firefighters busily swarming around the gnarled remains of a Mazda Protege, pointed at the crumpled body of Khris Day, 18, and pronounced him dead on sight.
Firefighters unceremoniously scooped Day’s limp body off the ground, carried him a couple feet away, then dumped him in the gravel wrapped in a white sheet.
A co-operative presentation organized in part by volunteer firefighter Darrell Johnson, the fake car accident was intended to hammer home the consequences of drunk driving to graduating students.
“We had 84 M.V.A.s (motor vehicle accidents) last year, with five fatalities,” said Johnson.
“This isn’t like down south; we don’t have the same resources. We don’t have a trauma unit ... if you’ve got blunt force trauma, if you’re not breathing, then we’re not going to revive you,” said Johnson.
“This isn’t TV,” Basnett told crowded bleachers of Grade 12 students. “I get the fire boys to drag you out of my way, and you are dead,” he said.
“That guy, about to go to university, about to start a real exciting part of his life? He is dead,” Basnett said, punching out his words.
“And the driver? He killed two of his best friends. That’s not very fun, is it?” he asked.
Four students participated in the simulation. The car, provided by Capital Towing Services Ltd., was placed beside the school’s baseball diamond. Then students were invited to watch as emergency services responded to the accident.
“When I come out, I want you to start screaming!” Johnson yelled to the occupants of the vehicle, right before hundreds of students filed out of the gymnasium.
On cue, Jennifer Behan, 16, began to shriek from the backseat, her face streaked with crusty, darkened fake blood.
In the passenger seat, Marie Achtymichuk, 17, laid her bloodied head on the dashboard, moaning.
Darcey Carlick, 16, was slumped in the driver’s seat with his mouth gaping open and head lolling to one side.
As students muttered to one another and whispered anxiously, sirens began to wail in the distance.
Three fire trucks and an ambulance appeared, speeding around the school and coming to an abrupt stop in a cloud of dust.
Within moments, firefighters were climbing inside the car and working on extricating the students from its crumpled remains.
“Get her out of here!” Basnett barked, upon learning that another victim had died. Behan was quickly whisked away and left lying beside her classmate, ignored as the emergency crew continued to work with the remaining victims.
The windows were noisily smashed, the roof sheared off the car. A firefighter hurled mangled pieces of the doorframe to the ground while crunching through the shattered glass surrounding the car. Paramedics swooped in with oxygen tanks and first aid kits, reassuring the students still trapped in the car.
“It’s going to be OK,” said one medic to a student. “Stay with us.”
Once the victims had been loaded into the ambulance, the students applauded the emergency services before being taken back into the gymnasium for further presentations from the school administration and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Alex Mcdougall, 18, called the presentation “pretty realistic”, and said he hoped it would remind his classmates of the dangers of drinking and driving.
He was in a traffic accident a couple of years ago, and said it’s a hard thing to go through.
“Everyone would hate to have their friends, or their family in a situation like this. And all because of alcohol,” he said.
“Did we get your attention?” one firefighter asked, before they excused themselves. “Because if we got your attention, then our job is done,” he said.