Getting kids to drive safely and avoid drugs and alcohol behind the wheel is always a challenge. Ted Swan, who has been a paramedic for twenty-four years knows first hand the consequences of unsafe driving, and spoke to the kids of YRHS about what happens in an ambulance call, and how to change habits and avoid being in an accident that requires one.
Swan walked the students through stories of real accidents and the injuries that people sustained during them. He also described the way people are treated during a call, and the tools used to treat those people. The presentation ends on a positive note, telling the students how they can stand up and be responsible in their lives.
"That message is they have a choice, you can cave to peer pressure or can stand in the gap of integrity of the moment and begin to build character," Swan says.
Part of the goal is to get kids thinking about all aspects of driving. While he says drinking and driving awareness is a huge part of the program, and a major problem. It's also important to tackle other distractions kids have on the road, like texting, and get kids to drive more carefully in all aspects.
"I want to show them that when they're in a crash, it's not just you and your family that are involved, it's the tow truck driver, it's the cleaning woman in the ER mopping up huge buckets of blood, it's the guy who is washing those sheets... It affects a lot of people," Swan says.
Speakers such has himself are a great opportunity for students, Swan says, and he says that everyone trying to get kids to be more responsible behind the wheel is doing a job that needs to be done.
"In eleven years my mantra has always been I just need one to think once and I've done my job. I know that I've touched a lot of people, it's been tremendously rewarding doing this," Swan says.
The start of Swan's career as a speaker began after the release of The Fast and the Furious, and during that time he says they were losing a kid a week in the Richmond, BC area, as they tried to replicate the stunts and races in the film. He says he saw that something needed to be done to prevent these deaths. After speaking at a road safety forum, he began doing presentations to schools, and started as a ICBC Road Sense speaker. That has lead to speaking to students across Canada.
Swan says that while that was the start of his speaking career, he has been committed to road safety from a young age.
When he was fifteen, he was part of a youth group, and three days before Christmas the leader of that group was killed by a drunk driver.
"Here I am, years down the road, twenty four years as a paramedic, and Christmas still has never been the same. Maybe that's another part of why I do this, it's certainly part of why I became a paramedic," Swan says.
Currently on tour in Saskatchewan sponsored by Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), Swan says that the community spirit in the province is second to none.
"What a great bunch. I've talked to these kids, and they don't see themselves in the same light I see them. I actually find it really moving, I get tears in my eyes thinking about the huge leadership these kids are showing at a really young age... And they don't get it! They're really humble, they don't see that they're community leaders, they're making a difference in people lives, and they have no idea... I'm honored and humbled to be in their presence," Swan says.
