Every fifteen minutes, someone dies in an alcohol-related collision. [A police officer told me the newer statistic is every 13 minutes.]
Last week, we were involved in our second “Every 15 Minutes” program at a local high school … Great Oaks High School in Temecula.
Regular readers of this blog might remember last year when our gurney collapsed while we were carrying the “deceased” from the accident scene to our van. We’ve tried many times since that day to make that gurney collapse … to no avail.
Last Thursday morning an accident scene was staged that involved a head on collision on the street in front of Great Oaks, with three students and one faculty member “dying” in the collision.
Police arrived on the scene, followed by fire personnel and EMTs. Several students were sent to our local trauma unit by ambulance, while one student was air-lifted by Mercy Air. I think three of the victims transported ended up “dying.”
We transported two DOAs to the mortuary. While that would not actually happen, as any deceased in an auto accident automatically becomes a coroner’s case, for the sake of this event, the “dead” were taken to our mortuary.
Unlike last year, this year I was involved in the “funeral service” held on Friday of Prom Weekend. The AD (a popular faculty member) volunteered to “lie in state” for about an hour and 45 minutes. Without telling you how I know this, caskets are not comfortable! And for a few minutes, while the casket was being brought into the gymnasium, he was in it with the lid closed. He was my hero for the event.
We took Lauren (student DOA) back to our mortuary and her parents were escorted by police to confirm it was their daughter who died. She told us her Dad never cries, but her mother will probably be emotional.
Let me tell you, as they walked into our chapel and saw their daughter lying on that table, mom and dad both lost it. I don’t know how Lauren kept her composure! This was all being professionally videotaped to be played on Friday to the student body.
Students selected to “die” write a letter to their family, completing this statement: Today I died, and I never got the chance to tell you . . . To hear the students at Great Oak read those letters was a very emotional experience. They didn’t hold back at all.
Then a couple of fathers read letters to their children who had “died” and those guys could hardly hold it together.
Finally, two members of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) told their stories. I don’t know how any one there could ever take a drink again, much less drink and drive. The sad reality is that many of those students simply mocked the whole event.
But if it saves one life … it was well worth all the effort. And I came away more grateful than ever that our children never put us through the misery of rebellion and trying to be like everyone else with drinking, partying, and drugs.
What a great and powerful teaching tool! I am teary-eyed just reading about it. Perhaps they should include in the “every 15 minutes” program, along with the alcohol-related collisions, talking and texting related collisions. In my opinion it is just as deadly.
I’m curious, are the people involved actually air-lifted and taken to hospitals?
Great post Greg!
[Yes, the are transported by ambulance and helicopter (imagine the cost of volunteering a helicopter and crew?) to local hospitals where they are "checked out" by ER doctors and nurses ... hooked up to machines ... pronounced dead ... and the doctor breaks the fateful news to the family that has been escorted to the waiting room by police officers and Trauma Intervention volunteers. All of this is filmed and edited into a powerful video for the 10th - 12th graders to see on Friday. Also, the "trial" and sentencing before a real judge with attorneys arguing the case is filmed and edited into the final film. It is a massive coordination of community services, all of which is volunteered. One year the helicopter had to be diverted to a real emergency and just after the event here, as we were going back to the mortuary, we came upon a rather serious accident and saw the same police and emergency people at the real scene as were at the staged accident.]
Wow! that is a powerful lesson and a powerful statemnt
Wow, Greg. This brings chills to me here on this incredibly hot and humid May morning in south Mississippi.
The year my older son David graduated from high school here in Picayune, a classmate was killed coming home from prom over on the Miss. gulf coast (so the kids could all drink, albeit, illegally) when her boyfriend hit a bridge abutment and flipped the car. Her mom was a high school teacher.
I ended up doing a series (I was Community Editor) in the newspaper on “Prom & Alcohol,” along with some editorials, that came out beginning graduation day. The newspaper later won 1st in the state for Community Service, an award given by the Miss. Press Assoc. where the competition was against ALL SIZES of newspapers.
Because of my work, the high school principal told me he would never talk with me again, but the town/parents/school board made tremendous changes in how prom was done and where – at home in Picayune with parents hosting before and after parties and activities for their kids. I’m more proud of that work than anything else I did in the three years I was there. It made a difference! People read local newspapers and the work of reporters and journalists DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
Your work does, too, in this. Obviously!! THANK YOU, GREG!!
Dee
BTW – I think that is a TREMENDOUS community service project y’all are doing there in Temecula. More communities need to try something like that. Unfortunately, here in Picayune, we had our own real tragic death. The boy was not charged with driving while drinking – I don’t know if he was. But, a lot of others of them sure were.
For two or three years after that happened, he was a total basket case. Would go to the girl’s house all the time where her mother kept her room just as it was when she died. It was all very awful.
That’s GREAT that the community takes the time and interest to do this. And I’m glad for your involvement and telling us about it. I’m a little late weighing in on this one, but oh how I wish the area of NE Arkansas I come from had been doing this some 37 years ago. There is one man, in particular, I wish could have gone through it. It might not have made an overall impact on his life, but who knows what will reach someone. Fortunately for him, the worst that has happened to him is jail time and/or losing everything dear to him in life. He hasn’t yet killed himself or anyone else.