Mock crash designed to hit home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2019 (2563 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a grim scene outside Vincent Massey High School on Thursday, during what was thankfully only a mock motor vehicle incident.

A body lay on the front lawn, the victim of an impaired driver who had too much marijuana before getting behind the wheel.

Sirens blaring, police, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the staged fatal incident, aimed at helping students see firsthand the dangers of driving under the influence.

“Hopefully (we) make it real enough that it scares them into making better choices,” said Kyle Worrall, a firefighter/paramedic with Brandon Fire & Emergency Services. “Calling a friend, all that kind of stuff, just get them home safe.”

Grade 12 students sat on chairs set out on the front lawn, observing the events unfold before them. The actors were all students from the school.

In the staged scenario, a car had driven over the curb and collided with a tree. The driver, covered in blood, was arrested, and the passenger was extracted from the vehicle using the Jaws of Life. Another was pronounced dead.

“It’s good for them to see because a lot of people see in movies is that everyone walks away fine,” Worrall said. “Having a spin with their classmates kind of makes it a little bit more real, because they see these people every day. Seeing one of their buddies or whoever they are lifeless on the ground, getting picked up by the funeral service, really hits it home.”

Although student Wyatt Beaudet, who played the impaired driver, said he already knew not to drive under the influence, he hoped his classmates might have taken something away from the mock crash.

“(I hope they learned) not to drive high. It’s legal now but still don’t do it, it’s still an impairing substance, it’s like driving drunk pretty much.”

Impaired driving is an ongoing problem in Brandon.

The Brandon Police Service respond to calls of impaired drivers several times a week.

“The reality of the matter is that there isn’t an impaired driving season. Impaired driving is occurring all times of the year, every day of the week,” said Michel Latreille, impaired driving co-ordinator with the Brandon Police Service.

After the mock crash demonstration was over, students heard from 20-year-old Hilary Renwick, whose sister was killed in an impaired driving incident in 2015. Through tears, Renwick read from a speech she had prepared on her phone.

Her sister, Taylor, was 20 years old, coming home for Thanksgiving when she was killed, hit head-on by a drunk driver.

Now, the Melita family is left living in pain.

“It has completely flipped my life upside-down,” Renwick said. “Everything I thought I knew and who I was as a person has been completely changed by it. My family has been completely changed.”

She hoped her talk would hit hard with students.

“I want to scare them, I want to upset them. I think that’s the only way that they are going to get anything from it,” she said. “I just want them to be upset so that they don’t do it, so that they don’t let other people do it, because it happens way too much and it flips lives upside down.”

» mverge@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @Melverge5