By Jason Emerson
Cazenovia High School juniors and seniors got a lesson in the reality of drunk driving consequences when they witnessed a Mock DWI incident at the high school last Friday. The mock incident included six students injured in a two-car accident, including one fatality, with a response from police, fire, CAVAC and funeral home personnel.
“There’s a reason we do this,” said Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes during the May 11 event. “It’s not to scare you; it’s to give you a dose of reality.”
“Kids need to know they are not invincible — one bad decision can change the rest of your life,” said Erick Haas, rescue captain of Cazenovia Fire and Rescue, who choreographed the mock incident.
As the 250 students watched, Cazenovia police arrived on the mock scene in the high school faculty parking lot in which one car smashed into the side of another car with four teens, with the cause being a drunk driver. The scene was staged with one of the front seat passengers lying across the hood of the car, having gone through the windshield from the impact.
As police officer Jeff Watkins assessed the scene, fire trucks and a CAVAC ambulance arrived. Watkins took the driver, Pat Nourse, to the side and evaluated him for being intoxicated, while emergency crews extricated the injured passengers. A few were able to walk out of the cars on their own; firefighters also had to break car windows and pry open car doors in order to get the others out.
One student walked over to the ambulance with a firefighter; one student was carried over to the ambulance on a backboard; and one student left the scene in a body bag in the back of the Michael E. Brown Funeral Home.
“This is the reality — that black bag is the reality,” Hayes said as he narrated the scene while emergency crews did their work. “That’s it; there’s no going home; there’s no going to college. Because of one selfish act, someone is no longer in your world.”
After the mock incident, students attended a brief assembly in the auditorium in which Hayes and other emergency personnel put the incident into context and explained the reality of what an event like that means, not just for the driver and passengers, but for parents, school staff and students, friends and family.
The Mock DWI event was sponsored by the CHS chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) in response to a student body decision to have the event. “After a frank and open discussion, they felt Caz needed this message,” said SADD Advisor Marty Kelly. “They thought they needed it, and the shock of it.”
“I think this should be a yearly thing for every grade [11 and 12],” said sophomore Morgan Camp who portrayed one of the injured car passenger and is also a Cazenovia Fire Department student volunteer. “This is something everybody needs to know about.”
Senior Lucy Langan, who portrayed the crash fatality, agreed. “This is a very realistic scene … it’s definitely a message everyone in the high school should hear.”
“I thought it was important for everyone to know how this effects not just those in the accident but the school as a whole,” said senior Mackenzie Usborne.
The event was a cooperative effort between the Cazenovia Central School District, the Cazenovia Village Police Department, CAVAC, Michael E. Brown Funeral Home and the Cazenovia and Erieville fire departments.
