Accident simulation shows result of drunk driving
Peabody EMS crew chief Karen Larsen doesn't have children old enough to attend a prom yet. She will not be one of the parents worrying about a son or daughter on prom night. But as a registered nurse and head of the Peabody EMS, she will sleep lightly anyway, dreading being called out on a night that should be reserved for fun and good memories.
That is why Larsen staged a prom night drunk driving collision in front of the high school Thursday afternoon.
A car with four students "hit" a car carrying a woman and three children head-on.
Staging for the accident included a young female in a prom dress being ejected through the windshield and a young man sprawled in the street. Neither moved. Another girl was trapped in the back seat and the driver was drunk and bleeding.
In the other car, two young children were dead, a third confused and injured, while the woman driver lay on the pavement with severe head and spine injuries.
The PBHS student body watched as members of the Peabody ambulance, fire, and police departments did their jobs at the scene of the accident.
The ambulance crew arrived and set up a triage. The victims were checked for injuries and the most severely injured were treated first. The dead were covered to await the coroner.
The Peabody Fire Department and Police Department showed up as they would at an actual accident. They too went through the drill — checking for gas leaks, monitoring traffic, and handling a car full of emotional students who came upon the wreck, as well as the parents and sight-seers who appeared.
Students saw the Life Team helicopter, dispatched from Wichita, land and then lift off with a severely injured victim. They watched the distraught mother of one of their dead classmates confront the boy who was driving drunk and who caused the accident.
The Jaws of Life were used to extract the victim from the back seat. In the wind, empty beer cans clattered as they rolled across the brick street where the collision occurred.
A grade school age girl was carried away in a body bag.
Larsen said the prom night scenario has been staged in Peabody before. "We try to do it periodically," she said. "The idea is to remind the kids to have fun and not take chances that could end in tragedy."
"The whole thing took about 30 minutes," said Larsen. "From the time we got the call until the helicopter lifted off to head back to Wichita, was roughly half an hour."
"If it had been a real accident with four actual casualties, we'd have stayed until the coroner arrived and pronounced the children dead. And then we'd have had to wait for the mortuary people to arrive and remove the bodies," she added.
Larsen said the local ambulance crew arrives at the ambulance shed within five minutes of being called at their homes.
Often, if the call indicates multiple victims or a potentially deadly situation, the Life Team crew is dispatched at the same time and can arrive at the scene before the ambulance crew. "It takes them 19 to 26 minutes to get here," said Larsen, "depending on wind and the location of the accident."
She noted that if they are not needed, they return to Wichita and there is no charge for the flight.
After the demonstration, the students returned to class, the beer cans were picked up, makeup removed from the dead and injured, and the emergency vehicles were put away.
If the incident had been real there would have been another chapter or two. Students would have attended the funerals of their friends. Injured victims would have struggled with surgery, rehabilitation, recovery, and altered lives.
And Jonathan Foth, who portrayed the drunk driver, would have entered the legal system.
"He'd have had blood drawn and sent to the lab to determine alcohol content," said Peabody Police Chief Jeff Pohlman. "If he tested positive, he'd have been charged with DUI — driving under the influence. Because of the deaths at the scene, he'd have been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter."
"Even if Jonathan is a good kid with no record, I doubt he could plead to a punishment that would not include prison time. Drinking and driving, being underage, causing the deaths of four people — you don't get by with a slap on the wrist for that."
Local independent insurance agent John Balthrop said that any DUI violation remains on record with the state for five years.
"With a manslaughter conviction, I doubt the person would ever be able to get a driver's license again," he said.
He added that even if no deaths occurred, the driver would end up in an assigned risk pool which would mean much higher insurance costs for years.
"For a teen-ager, the costs don't necessarily go down after the five years are up," he added. "The state may remove the information (from the driver's record), but the insurance company can still demand higher premiums until the driver is 25."
Balthrop also said there is a bill in the Kansas legislature now to make parents liable if their underage children get a DUI. The bill also would allow the state to pull the license of the underage violator until he or she turned 21.
Larsen said she is committed to making future presentations such as the one seen by Peabody-Burns students last week. "If this can keep just one kid from winding up dead or injured for life, it is worth it," she said.
"The one thing I would urge the kids to do is THINK." she said. "Don't drink and drive, don't ride with someone who has been drinking, buckle up — THINK."
