HUMBOLDT — A program designed to teach students that driving impaired or while texting can have serious consequences hit its mark.
The Grade 10 students at Humboldt Collegiate Institute were the first of four groups of students to experience the prevent alcohol and risk-related trauma in youth (PARTY) program, on May 1.
Teijon Abel-Douglas was one of the students.
“It was very eye-opening because you know that it can happen, but you never actually know if it ever will happen or happen to you,” he said. “It makes you kind of sit in the position of some of those people.
“What if it's you who put your family through that? What if there was someone in your family who puts you through such a burden?”
Students saw a demonstration of a vehicle extrication; listened to presentations from the RCMP, emergency room nurses, addictions counselors, and the hospital's therapies department; heard from a funeral home director and coroner; learned how police, fire and emergency medical services members deal with the mental trauma coming from dealing with an motor vehicle collision; learned coping techniques to deal with stress; and listened to presentations made by two survivors.
“I thought it was really great just to hear other people's stories, and not just... the usual message of don't drink and drive, don't text and drive,” said Emma Abrey, another Grade 10 student.
For both Abrey and Abel-Douglas, a highlight of the day was listening to Brenda Shrader’s story. She lost two siblings in two different collisions involving impaired drivers.
“When she was talking about her brothers and how she would never get to talk to them again, that just made me think about my brother and sister and how would feel if I never got to talk to them again and that made me very upset,” Abrey said.
Abel-Douglas said the day will have an effect of the kinds of decisions he’ll make.
“I really think when I got my license, which is coming up pretty soon, I will be a lot more cautious with it because I don't want my family to be in the position of someone showing up at 4 in the morning saying that saying that I have died or a cop showing up and saying my sister or my brother had died in a car accident.”
Abrey said she’ll wait until she’s not driving to answer a text message.
“If you're going to go out and and have fun, go for it, but make sure you have a way home that's safe and not just jumping in with somebody that you don't know,” she said.
Shari Hinz, the executive director for Safe Communities Humboldt, which organized the program, said the day is about the choices people make and the ripple effect that affects an entire community if there’s a traumatic injury caused by a collision.
“We just want students to be responsible,” she said. “There's no excuses for drinking and driving. There's no excuses for texting and driving or driving distracted. There's always a better choice that will keep yourselves and others safe on the road.”
