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ENLARGE
Douglas County deputy Jon Dorland checks for a pulse on mock accident victim Shelby Emel on the football field at North Douglas High School in Drain on Friday. Representatives from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and local firefighters staged the mock accident to show students the dangers of drunken driving.
VIDEO
Read to the bottom of the article for a video from the DUII crash simulation.
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ENLARGE
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Drama teacher Christina Jamerson is coated with ketchup, to simulate blood, before portraying an accident victim in a mock drunken driving accident at North Douglas High School Friday.
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ENLARGE
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Freshmen, from left, Melissa Phillips, Allyse Doudan, and Kassidee Rice watch from the bleachers during a mock drunken driving accident on the football field at North Douglas High School in Drain on Friday. Representatives from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and local firefighters staged the accident to show students the dangers of drunken driving.
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DRAIN — The frantic call from a teenager to a 911 dispatcher echoes through the loud speaker at North Douglas High School’s football field. The girl absorbs the details of the horrific scene in front of her and tries to relate them to the woman at the dispatch center.
Two cars hit head on.
There’s blood everywhere.
Someone’s lying on the pavement.
She’s not breathing.
They were on their way home from prom.
Beers bottles are on the ground.
The dispatcher tells the teen that help is on the way. Within less than a minute, emergency sirens can be heard screaming from blocks away, getting louder as they approach the school.
The chatter between emergency responders and the dispatcher booms through the speakers.
Probable fatal crash.
Multiple patients.
Reportedly, alcohol was involved.
Within minutes, the scene is flooded with emergency responders from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, North Douglas County Fire and EMS and Oregon Department of Transportation.
The more than 100 students at North Douglas High School watch from the field’s bleachers as responders move between the two crunched cars, trying to save the lives of the five students and one teacher involved in the crash demonstration.
The mock drunken driving crash was staged by Sheriff’s Office deputy Brad O’Dell to try and make the teens aware of the dangers of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. The demonstration took place Friday morning, just hours before the teens would begin styling their hair, painting their nails and getting dressed for prom.
“We hope at least one student changes their mind about drinking and driving tonight,” senior Crystal Huckins, who played the teen making the frantic 911 call, said after the demonstration.
The demonstration lasted for nearly an hour as the students watched — some covering their mouths as they watched their classmates being loaded on to stretchers, others wiping away tears at times when the scene seemed all too real.
“It’s not something you think about every day,” said junior Hannah Cain as tears rolled down her cheeks. Earlier this year, one of Cain’s friends died in a car crash.
“It just really hit a sensitive spot,” she said of the mock crash.
At the scene of the crash, Sheriff’s Office deputy Jon Dorland administered field sobriety tests to junior Tanner Toy, who played the drunken driver of one of the cars, as a team of firefighters worked to extract two other students from Toy’s smashed car.
At the same time, paramedics tried to stabilize the screaming passenger in the other car, played by senior Rochelle Hescock, and save the life of the driver of the car, played by teacher Christina Jamerson.
The sound of a Life Flight helicopter could be heard approaching from the distance. Once it landed, paramedics loaded a severely-injured passenger from Toy’s car into the awaiting helicopter and left for the hospital.
Finally, Douglas County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Jenni Gall arrived on the scene and, after examining the body of the teen ejected from Toy’s car, moved the girl on to a stretcher, zipped her inside a white bag and loaded the teen into the back of her van. The accident victim was played by junior Shelby Emel.
Once the scene was cleared, O’Dell picked up the microphone and told the North Douglas students more about the consequences of the crash.
Toy would be charged with manslaughter, among other charges, and faced at least 10 years in prison.
Jamerson was on the verge of death and would never be able to return to work.
Hescock would need two years of intense physical therapy and would have speech problems for the rest of her life.
“We all know that the greatest tragedy here was that this entire scene was preventable,” O’Dell told the students. “... Ladies and gentlemen, this scene is something that, as an emergency responder, happens all too often.”
After the event, Jamerson said she hoped the demonstration served as a reality check for the teens.
“Not everybody’s going to take it serious,” Jamerson said. “But if we can prevent just one person from doing it, I think we’ve done our jobs.”
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@nrtoday.com.
Two cars hit head on.
There’s blood everywhere.
Someone’s lying on the pavement.
She’s not breathing.
They were on their way home from prom.
Beers bottles are on the ground.
The dispatcher tells the teen that help is on the way. Within less than a minute, emergency sirens can be heard screaming from blocks away, getting louder as they approach the school.
The chatter between emergency responders and the dispatcher booms through the speakers.
Probable fatal crash.
Multiple patients.
Reportedly, alcohol was involved.
Within minutes, the scene is flooded with emergency responders from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, North Douglas County Fire and EMS and Oregon Department of Transportation.
The more than 100 students at North Douglas High School watch from the field’s bleachers as responders move between the two crunched cars, trying to save the lives of the five students and one teacher involved in the crash demonstration.
The mock drunken driving crash was staged by Sheriff’s Office deputy Brad O’Dell to try and make the teens aware of the dangers of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. The demonstration took place Friday morning, just hours before the teens would begin styling their hair, painting their nails and getting dressed for prom.
“We hope at least one student changes their mind about drinking and driving tonight,” senior Crystal Huckins, who played the teen making the frantic 911 call, said after the demonstration.
The demonstration lasted for nearly an hour as the students watched — some covering their mouths as they watched their classmates being loaded on to stretchers, others wiping away tears at times when the scene seemed all too real.
“It’s not something you think about every day,” said junior Hannah Cain as tears rolled down her cheeks. Earlier this year, one of Cain’s friends died in a car crash.
“It just really hit a sensitive spot,” she said of the mock crash.
At the scene of the crash, Sheriff’s Office deputy Jon Dorland administered field sobriety tests to junior Tanner Toy, who played the drunken driver of one of the cars, as a team of firefighters worked to extract two other students from Toy’s smashed car.
At the same time, paramedics tried to stabilize the screaming passenger in the other car, played by senior Rochelle Hescock, and save the life of the driver of the car, played by teacher Christina Jamerson.
The sound of a Life Flight helicopter could be heard approaching from the distance. Once it landed, paramedics loaded a severely-injured passenger from Toy’s car into the awaiting helicopter and left for the hospital.
Finally, Douglas County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Jenni Gall arrived on the scene and, after examining the body of the teen ejected from Toy’s car, moved the girl on to a stretcher, zipped her inside a white bag and loaded the teen into the back of her van. The accident victim was played by junior Shelby Emel.
Once the scene was cleared, O’Dell picked up the microphone and told the North Douglas students more about the consequences of the crash.
Toy would be charged with manslaughter, among other charges, and faced at least 10 years in prison.
Jamerson was on the verge of death and would never be able to return to work.
Hescock would need two years of intense physical therapy and would have speech problems for the rest of her life.
“We all know that the greatest tragedy here was that this entire scene was preventable,” O’Dell told the students. “... Ladies and gentlemen, this scene is something that, as an emergency responder, happens all too often.”
After the event, Jamerson said she hoped the demonstration served as a reality check for the teens.
“Not everybody’s going to take it serious,” Jamerson said. “But if we can prevent just one person from doing it, I think we’ve done our jobs.”
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@nrtoday.com.
