The Safe Communities P.A.R.T.Y. program normally addresses the consequences of drinking and driving and texting and driving in a very visual way.
However, in light of the recent Humboldt Broncos bus crash, Safe Communities Humboldt and Area executive director, Shari Hinz says, the core emergency crews that coordinate the event wanted to give teens and emergency crews a break with the program cancelled for this year.
The mock crash scene, with wrecked vehicles and bloodied victims, is meant to get teens as close to the scene of an accident as they can safely get. A member of the emergency services narrates the scene as it plays out.
This is something that Hinz says is just not appropriate right now, for teens and emergency crews.
“This is not the right time to hold this particular program, with respect to the mock crash and just the content of the program, it wasn’t a good time to host something like that so soon in the community.”
Front line emergency workers have also been impacted and need time to heal.
The accident has taken its toll on the young people in the region, says Hinz, and the emergency crews in the area.
The program has been postponed until 2019 to give people some time to heal after the accident with Safe Communities being able to offer four P.A.R.T.Y. dates, two in April and two in May, for next year’s event. No community will be missed who want to participate in the program, says Hinz.
Even with P.A.R.T.Y. being cancelled for 2018, the message is still an important one, says Hinz.
We are heading into graduation season and that means teens and parents need to make safe decisions when it comes to driving while impaired.
“We want everyone to have a good time celebrating those successes and those milestones and events, but make good choices to ensure, not just themselves but also their friends and family arrive home safe after those celebrations.”
P.A.R.T.Y. funding will still be made available for those postponed dates by BHP Billiton.
