Mock disaster costs less than $100
Senior Kayla DeCant poses as one of the multiple "victims" of the mock disaster scene.
April 26, 2011 • By Katy Leinweber
Filed under News
How do you raise awareness of the consequences of distracted driving? According to the SADD club and its moderator Mrs. Sheila Martinez, you may as well re-enact it on your school’s very own football field.
Students were ushered out of their D period classrooms on April 12 after viewing a short movie acted out by SADD club members setting up the plot in order to witness a real-life crash scene. As the enormous black tarp was taken off, the image underneath struck people in a tender spot.
“When I saw the crashed cars and fake dead people that were under the tarp, I didn’t even know how to react. It all looked so real,” sophomore Jack Poupore said.
As the students were taking in the view, which included two crashed cars and multiple SADD club members playing dead or injured, numerous police vehicles along with an ambulance and a fire truck arrived on scene to demonstrate the assessment of a crash. The “drunk driver,” junior Courtney Hendricks, was tested as if she actually caused the damage, and the crash victims were taken care of by other officers, paralleling a real incident. What the students didn’t expect was an actual helicopter that arrived.
“I saw a helicopter above us and I thought it’d be cool if it came to school. I didn’t know it actually planned to land on the field,” said junior Patrick Lotzar.
This is merely a summary of the chaotic events that took place on the field that day, impacting students left and right.
“We did this when this year’s seniors were freshmen and it went really well, so the club members wanted to keep doing it,” Mrs. Martinez said.
Perhaps the most frightening thing about the day was the “death” of Chase Fauer, as commented on by multiple students that passed by him sitting in the middle of campus as a reminder of the death.
“I hated walking by and looking at him [Fauer] sitting there with all of his graphic make up on. I couldn’t imagine if it were actually real. Then the video at the end of the day posing as a remembrance of him really freaked me out,” freshman Payton Kruidenier said.
Something that students didn’t know about the SADD presentation was that there was a mix up in who was supposed to be the fatality in the acted out car accident. One person who was involved in the mistake was freshman Gabriella Martinez, who was mistaken for the fatality (supposed to be Chase Fauer) and played along with it. “They had to take the roof off of the car; so they put a blanket over me, so nothing like glass would get on me. So I ended up being the dead person, and I heard them say that ‘901’ for a fatality,” said Martinez. Chase Fauer was accidentally taken off the scene momentarily, but Mrs. Beers stepped in to correct and he was quickly taken back to the crash.
Although there was a mistake made by the fire department, Martinez didn’t want it to distract from the message of the presentation. “So I kind of went along with it, I guess. I was just left there,” she said. “I want to do it again, because it reinforces the idea to not drink and drive.”
Interestingly enough, the whole day, including the entire crash scene, video, and victim make up, cost less than $100, said Mrs. Martinez
“Everything was donated except for the clothes, which the kids got from Good Will,” she said.
The medical officials and officers did the re-enactment at no charge, and the crashed cars were donated by ABC Towing Company, Mrs. Martinez also said.
One thing is for sure: driving under the influence will definitely decline here at NDP.
Staff writer Sylvio Martins contributed to this report.
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