Rehobeth High School students got a dose of reality from a mock-accident staged by the Houston County Substance Abuse Partnership and several local public safety agencies Wednesday.
Rehobeth juniors and seniors watched Wednesday morning as Houston County Sheriff’s deputies, paramedics and Houston County Deputy Coroner Ben Earnest responded to a mock-accident scene involving two students in one vehicle and a drunk driver in another.
The mock accident illustrated how law enforcement, paramedics and the coroner’s office would respond to an alcohol-related fatality. In the staged scenario, one student was subjected to a field sobriety test and escorted away in handcuffs, another was taken away by paramedics and a third was pronounced dead.
Susan Trawick, Houston County Substance Abuse Partnership executive director, said the event was intended to remind students of the possible consequences of drinking and driving as prom season approaches.
“When they see their classmates in even a mock accident, it gets their attention,” she said.
Teen auto fatalities and all auto fatalities in Alabama have actually been dropping for the past few years. In 2004, 1,156 Alabamians, 60 of which were 16- and 17-year olds died in traffic accidents, according to the Alabama Department of Public Safety. In 2009, 848 Alabamians, 29 of which were 16- and 17-year-olds, died in auto accidents.
According to the Department of Public Safety, 16 percent of teen traffic fatalities are related to alcohol.
Maranda Jackson, 18, said the event was a useful wake-up call to students.
“It could happen to any of us if we make the wrong choices,” she said.
“It’s going to make you sit back and think,” Zaccheus Watford, 18, said.
Hunter Skipper, 18, said he felt that some students were bound to drink regardless of programs like the mock accident.
“It won’t make a difference for some,” he said. “They’ll ignore it. Just the idiots.”
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