TheBanyanTree: A piece from our news

[Sheri Baity]

Local News



Mansfield Firemen's Ambulance brings education about DUI dangers to students
by Sheri L. Baity 

The Mansfield Firemen's Ambulance hosted a mock accident scene for students of the Mansfield High School on Tuesday that was more than graphic, the object being to bring awareness and education of the dangers of driving under the influence before prom night this coming Friday, June 6.

The event was organized with the help of the Key Club, sub-organization of Kiwanis for sophomores and seniors in Mansfield High School.
The scene was horrid. The smiles on the students faces were slowly disappearing as the call to 911 was placed by Erin Hall, a 10th grader portraying the drunk driver, after she left the car carrying a beer can, screaming for her friend, Erica Donner, to wake up.

The first to show up were the Mansfield police, as they went around surveying the accident scene. Guthrie Life Flight was dispatched as the Mansfield Fire Department and Ambulance crews arrived.

While the police escorted the drunk driver away from the scene to give her a sobriety test, emergency crews climbed in the car to cover the injured as the Jaws of Life went to work to strip the vehicle of the top.

This was needed to remove the trapped occupants, both injured and dead.


Blood was seen running down the side of the vehicle where the four high school students appeared to lay lifeless.

Just 20 minutes earlier, they were on their way to the prom. Now, three are sent via ambulance, one is life flighted still in her prom gown and two lay in body bags outside the vehicle awaiting to be picked up by the coroner.

A mother runs towards the vehicle screaming for her son, whom will never answer again. The police and rescue personal race to bring her back to safety. She is comforted by her husband who can't seem to find any words. A great loss is displayed in their emotions.

Dan Walsh, Tioga County Fire Coordinator, went through the enactment, with play by play actions for the students of the High School as they watched on. He started with the Mansfield Fire Department when he was in 10th grade. Walsh has been Coordinator for four years now.

The impact and education that is being brought to these students will hopefully, be fresh in their minds, come prom night.

As the community braces for that big night, Walsh added a few facts. A newspaper article dated just May 11 read, Teens top nation in fatal crashes. He also brought home that in the last 18 months, Canton has lost 6 students, including the latest, a 17- year-old senior who died Friday night on his way to baccalaureate when his car was hit head on by a teen in another vehicle.

Walsh asked, "Would you get up in the morning and take a razor blade to your face? Well, that's what they are doing, getting in a vehicle, driving drunk and wearing no seat belts."

He took the speech from former president John F. Kennedy and made it his impact statement to the students.

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask you, YOU ( he said pointing to the students), what you can do for your country. If I have reached even one person today, I'm happy. I think I have done that," Walsh said.

"It's all a team effort. We do our part and now you do your part," Mark Hamilton, President and assistant chief of the ambulance association, added.

Principal Denise Drabick decided to take her medical experience and knowledge and go back to school to further her degrees, with the hopes of bringing this passion to the future in the name of education.

With a remarkable wealth of knowledge, she states, "I want to be very involved with where we are going with education here in Tioga County. Not just Mansfield or Wellsboro, we need to do this together. These are our next generation. My goal is to help these children get ready for the real world. I would really like to finish my doctorate. I want to see and help make good change," Drabick added.

Ann Klinger, Jason McMullen, the principal and faculty of MHS, Buckheit Funeral Home, the District Attorney's office, Life Flight, police, coroner's office, all the emergency crew and student actors, should be highly applauded for their efforts today in hopefully, making a difference. You drink and get behind the wheel, you are playing Russian Roulette. You will have no idea until it is too late and you sober up, whose life you ended.

As Walsh stated, when you get behind the wheel, "you are in the possession of a two ton weapon."


       



   

   

   


  
    Copyright © 2003 Wellsboro Gazette

   

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