Motor vehicle accidents can have a huge impact, and not just on the victims.
That was the message Safe Communities wanted to get across with the 13th annual Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) program on May 3.
“Any choices they do make affects more than just themselves,” says Shari Hinz with Safe Communities and that was evident in the presentations that were made by emergency services personnel, funeral home directors, and survivors.
Young people are faced with choices everyday about drinking, drugs, and cell phone usage.
If the program can provide them with tools and information to get them rethinking their choices, even if it is just one person who chooses not to drink and drive, the program is doing its job, says Hinz.
Around a hundred students from Humboldt Collegiate Institute’s grade 10 class and Englefeld School’s grade 9 and 10 participated in the program which is a hands on learning experience about the impacts of drinking and driving and texting and driving.
These students are also either currently in drivers education or have their learners license.
That age group is also the highest for injury or death related to motor vehicle accidents, drug use, and other high risk behaviour, says Hinz.
“To reach those students when they are new and young drivers on our highways and get that information to them, provide those scenarios and try to make them think of what they’re doing when they’re on the road...that’s so important.”
Students started off the day with the Mock Crash Scene where emergency crews simulated a head on collision on the Elgar Petersen Arena ice surface. The scene was made as authentic as possible with Humboldt Fire, EMS, and RCMP on scene to arrest a drunk driver, extricate one victim, and attend to a deceased victim.
Those are all real implications of decisions people make on Saskatchewan highways everyday, says Hinz.
“Everyday there are eight motor vehicle accidents in this province, one every three hours,” says Hinz.
During a motor vehicle accident a lot of people are involved in providing care to victims, says Dave Mortensen with Humboldt EMS, and he wants the students to see that with the mock crash as well as how they can be impacted.
Humboldt Fire Chief Mike Kwasnica says that they also use the mock crash scene to train their own firefighters who attend accidents and help with extraction and use of the equipment.
It can be quite a shock attending your first scene as part of an emergency crew, says Kwasnica.
“This is the most realistic that we can do because we’ve got the victims, the scenario, the mess, the RCMP, so we like to use a lot of our newer members to do this because it is the most realistic that we can find without going to the real thing.”
From the mock crash scene students attended presentations from the RCMP, addictions services, physical rehabilitation services, and emergency room personnel.
Constable Chris Greenslade with the Combined Traffic Services Saskatchewan out of Lanigan says that every adult in the room has been where the students are, they just want the students to be safe and make safe choices when out having fun.
His presentation about attending motor vehicle accidents included showing the students pictures from actual accident scenes.
That is part of the reality of talking with students about how serious their choices can be, says Hinz.
During lunchtime, students were also expected to participate in a disability lunch where they were to attempt to eat lunch with some form of disability.
After lunch students were taken to either Malinoski and Danyluik or Schuler-Lefebvre Funeral Homes to be taken through the process of how dead bodies are attended to from the time they are brought in to the time they are at their funeral.
Presentations were given by both coroners and funeral home attendants on the effects they see on families as they go through the process of burying their loved one.
For parents, burying their child means a life not lived, says Gloria Malinoski with Malinoski and Danyluik Funeral Homes.
“There will never be a graduation, there will never be a wedding or grandchildren, just what they will be missing.”
Deryk Meszaros of Schuler-Lefebvre Funeral Home sees how people’s lives and families are effected and the problem is that sometimes it is not taken seriously.
“Until you go through that and have to go through those emotions and those feelings, it’s hard but they need to take it seriously.”
Students then were back at the Uniplex to hear from crash survivor Kelly Weber and family survivor Brenda Shrader.
Weber was just 19 years old when her and her boyfriend were struck by a drunk driver. She is now confined to a wheelchair and lost two years worth of memories from before the accident.
Weber shared pictures from her life before and after the accident to show how drastically her life was changed.
Shrader, who does driver testing in Humboldt through SGI, knows the impacts drunk driving can have on a family.
She lost two brothers from drinking and driving, one in 1981 and one in 1995.
“I’ll never get over it,” she says, and she hopes students understand the impact that it is has had on her life.
“I don’t think they (my brothers) figured it was bad and back then it was probably more normal than abnormal. I wish they would have thought about me before they got in the car.”
Judging by what she saw moving from presentation to presentation, Hinz says she saw a lot of strong reactions from the students.
“Knowing that those kinds of reactions are received by the students, you hope that that helps to solidify the fact that the message is getting through to them.”
How students react to the day is something that Hinz talks with with her volunteers. Especially if a student has been in a crash themselves or knows someone who has, the day can be difficult to get through.
“Sometimes those scenarios that are being presented can bring all of those things back and bring the emotions back with them.”
Even though P.A.R.T.Y. is one way of getting the message across of positive behaviour, being better role models for students is a way everyone can make sure they make good choices.
Especially with parents of learner drivers, Hinz says to emulate the behaviour that they would want to see in their young drivers, from putting the phone down to not getting behind the wheel after they have been drinking.
“There’s a lot of adults on the road these days who are charges with distracted and impaired driving. It all comes down to parental guidance as well.”
