S-C juniors & seniors witness mock car crash response

Smith-Cotton High School juniors and seniors had a front-row seat to a simulated car crash May 2 on the parking lot at 2010 Tiger Pride Boulevard.

The scenario featured Smith-Cotton students as “victims” and real-life first responders from the Sedalia Police Department, Sedalia Fire Department, PCAD, Pettis County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

InMotion Towing supplied the wrecked vehicles.

It was a coordinated effort, with units staging at Sutherlands and promptly responding when the call went out at 1:30 p.m., with S-C students already seated in bleachers provided by the Missouri State Fair.

The demonstration was a reminder of what can go wrong when young, inexperienced drivers indulge in drinking and driving, or drugs and driving, or are distracted by their ever-present cell phones.

That was part one of the event. The second part took place inside the Heckart Performing Arts Center and involved real-life Bothwell doctors, nurses, ER technicians and EMTs in a simulated hospital operating room in which some patients survived, while others did not.

Smith-Cotton Assistant Principal Joe Doyle noted that the May 2 event was his fourth or fifth mock crash that he has been a part of, adding that the event usually takes places every other year at S-C.

“This is my eleventh year here. We had it scheduled for last year … but Mother Nature didn’t cooperate, so we had to push it back to this year,” Doyle said.

“I think it made an impact, just watching body language. We had 700 teenagers in here and they were pretty darned quiet, paying attention and watching,” Doyle said, noting that most every one of them are licensed drivers.

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All five of the students who participated in the exercise are hand picked, and highly involved in various activities at the high school. “So when they look up here and see these kids, they’re connected to at least one of them in some way,” Doyle told KSIS.

The presentation for Doyle is a win-win for those involved. It gives them a little bit of opportunity to do some training and practice using the tools of their trade, he pointed out.

Once 1:45 hits, it’s go time and it’s all them, Doyle said of the first responders and medical professionals.

The powerful accident scene is made as realistic as possible, and the student “victims” are prepped ahead of time with special make-up for visible injuries that look very real.

“We always have a couple of students who come to the hospital scene to show that sometimes, that yes, there is loss of life at the scene, but other times it happens much later at the hospital,” Doyle said.

To drive the point home, as students filed out of the Heckart PAC following the on-stage presentation, they had to walk past caskets placed in the lobby.

“It really is a community effort, from law enforcement, to Bothwell, to the Fairgrounds, etc., it really is a big effort,” Doyle said.

“Ashley Stark is our security director for the school district. She’s got a group of students called “Traction” and they do safety efforts all throughout the school year, mostly driving related. So they were part of helping out today as well, and then we had a number of students come over from Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart is starting their own Traction program, so we brought them over, they partnered with our Traction kids, so they’re getting their program up & running and ours is about two years old now,” Doyle, a 2003 S-C grad, told KSIS. “Safety is a focus all throughout the school year.”