Mock crash illustrates consequences of OUI
The W-H Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapter held its biannual mock car crash May 20 — a strong, emotion-laden performance to, it is hoped, drive home a point for W-H juniors and seniors.
As this week brings the senior prom, educators said they hope to have reached students with a life lesson. With help from law enforcement from both towns as well as EMS the group responded to a crash in which students had reportedly left a party after drinking. In an assembly beforehand students watched their fellow classmates in a play depicting, drinking games, chugging beers and then discussing who was OK to drive.
A short movie was then played of the group who chose to drive, with realistic blurring, swerving and sounds of glass as the students are involved in the car “crash.” The student body then headed outside to view the aftermath in a realistic scene of mangled metal, blood, and glass in the W-H parking lot. The wrecked vehicles were provided by McQuarrie Auto Engineering of Hanson.
Darcie MacDonald, actress and real life mom to Brody MacDonald, 11, of Hanson, hysterically reacted to her son nearly being killed in the car as they awaited medical help. Her emotions were so real several students could be seen wiping their tears and clutching their arms together as she cried out she needed to be with her son. He lay unconscious in the car as police escorted her away and she collapsed in the officers’ arms.
She appeared helpless a victim of someone else’s poor choices, which W-H SADD volunteers later said “felt terribly real.”
Seniors Rachel Sword, Matt Evans, and Marena DeMinico were just three students playing parts, but after the mock crash while students returned inside the building they still had adrenalin coursing through their veins.
Covered in fake blood the three compared notes on how the crowd perceived the performance.
“I forgot I was acting at one point,” said Sword as she described her character trying to take and then fail sobriety tests.
No one was talking as they watched the crowd watching them Sword and Evans agreed they got their point across to the crowd of their peers.
Nick Smith who played the fatality was brought away in a hearse at the end of the crash leaving students dumbfounded. His real mother Rene’ Smith arrived at the end as she was told they “lost him.” Watching a mother get the news of losing her son although fabricated for the performance appeared to affect many who stood in stunned silence.
Matt Evans called Smith, also known as “Turbo” because of his running speed a “great kid an all-around respected three sport captain. Even though this was not real — it could have happened,” he said.
“Teens shouldn’t feel invincible,” said DeMinico. “This is reality. It’s hard but we are glad we did it. People think it won’t happen to them but we just watched it happen.”