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<P><B>Local News</B></P>
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<P><B>Mansfield Firemen's Ambulance brings education about DUI dangers to
students</B><BR>by Sheri L. Baity </P>
<P>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.<BR><BR>The event was
organized with the help of the Key Club, sub-organization of Kiwanis for
sophomores and seniors in Mansfield High School.<BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>This was needed to remove the
trapped occupants, both injured and dead.<BR>
<P>Blood was seen running down the side of the vehicle where the four high
school students appeared to lay lifeless.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>The impact and
education that is being brought to these students will hopefully, be fresh in
their minds, come prom night.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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."<BR><BR>He took the speech
from former president John F. Kennedy and made it his impact statement to the
students.<BR><BR>"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.<BR><BR>"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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>As
Walsh stated, when you get behind the wheel, "you are in the possession of a two
ton weapon."<BR>
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