Seeing is believing and practice makes perfect.
These two adages proved true on Thursday when emergency response agencies held a mock accident drill and students were able to have an eye-witness account of everything as it unfolded.
Mohawk Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps staged the mock driving while intoxicated accident Thursday morning in the parking lot behind Gregory B. Jarvis Junior-Senior High School.
In the mock accident, a drunken student driver, who was also the least injured, caused a three-vehicle accident in which the driver’s car overturned, landing on its roof, and another car was sent halfway under a tanker truck. Of eight students participating in mock accident, two were staged to have died.
Co-planner of the event Pat Rhyde, a teacher who served as faculty adviser, said she wanted the mock accident to be as realistic as possible, so students were made up to have blood on their bodies, cuts and black eyes. Students even rehearsed the scene for the past three months.
“It scares the heck out of me with (the students’) make-up on,” said Rhyde.
Once the drill started, a call was sent out to report to the accident. Mohawk Police arrived on the scene and were followed shortly by the Mohawk Fire Department.
Firefighters worked to put out the fire as smoke was coming from one of the cars and free the students from the vehicles while a police officer performed a field investigation and determined the mock driver of the vehicle was intoxicated, which was followed by a mock arrest.
Firefighters freed the students from the overturned car by breaking the back window and had to use the Jaws of Life on the car that was wedged under the tanker truck.
Ambulance crews from MOVAC then arrived and later from Rural Metro and the Kuyahoora Ambulance Corps. Even a helicopter from Albany arrived, landing on the area inside the school’s track.
Students in grades 10 through 12 got to witness everything happening in front of them while Richard Bishop, a teacher at the school and volunteer with the Deerfield Fire Department and MOVAC, explained in detail what was happening.
At the conclusion of the mock accident, employees from Iocovozzi Funeral Homes arrived in a hearse to record the time of death and take the mock dead students away.
“It went well, went real well,” said MOVAC’s Jeff Sitterly, who spent almost a year planning the mock accident with Rhyde.
He said it’s not only an excellent drill for MOVAC, but also the fire department.
Sitterly also said it was helpful to practice with the helicopter and landing zone, because the helicopter isn’t used much.
Elizabeth Keeler, Heather Monroe and Josephine Busack were three of the students who participated in the drill, with Busack playing the part of the drunk driver.
“People die from something so stupid,” said Monroe.
Keeler said paper angels have been hung around the school; each angel represents 10 deaths in DWI accidents. Estimates show there are 17,600 deaths a year from DWI incidents.
“(The angels) are just so people can believe how many,” said Keeler.
“Nobody believes us that that is how many,” added Busack.