JCHS Students See Results Of Drinking And Driving

By Linda Kor
   Joseph City High School students received a visit from the area’s emergency services with the intent of providing a very important message regarding drinking and driving.
   On Monday, Oct. 5, the event coordinated by paramedics Steve Smithson and Dev Kuhse involved Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC), Guardian Air, the Joseph City Fire Department, local law enforcement, the Navajo County medical examiners and Holbrook Emergency Medical Services, and allowed kids to see firsthand the results that can come from drinking alcohol and getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.
   Shawn Bowker, an R.N. with FMC, initially addressed the teenagers and talked about the effects of alcohol on the body. “How many times have you seen someone try to walk straight when they’re drunk? They can’t, but they think they are. How many of those same people are talking too loud and don’t know it? How many of those people think they’re OK to drive? How many of you want to get in the car with them and let them drive?” she asked the students.
   Most of the students seemed to get the message that the combination of drinking and driving makes a dangerous weapon, but the statistics show that not all do.
   According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 17,000 people were killed in alcohol-related traffic accidents in the United States last year, a rate of one person every 30 minutes. Even more alarming, almost one third of the 15 to 20-year-old drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. had been drinking.
   To give a demonstration of the effect of alcohol on the body, Bowker had teacher Robert Pugh put on what are called “fatal vision” goggles. The sight was rather comical as Pugh wobbled about unstably, and was unable to catch a ball or pick up keys. Pugh’s inability to master the simplest of tasks was due to glasses that imitated the effects of just a small amount of alcohol.
   “These glasses only show the visual affects of alcohol, not the overall effects of the drug in your blood stream,” emphasized Bowker.
   Out on the baseball diamond, a mock accident involving a drunk driver was played out and emergency services responded as if the accident were real. In the mock accident a vehicle, provided by Hansen Auto-motive, was left in the baseball field. The scenario was that the driver, JCHS senior Sammy Perry, had been drinking and decided to drive a vehicle. While Sammy had worn her seat belt, her passenger and younger brother, JCHS freshman Brendon Kuhse, had not.
   In the staged collision Sammy survived the accident in critical condition, but Brendon was not so fortu-nate. He was killed instantly when he went through the windshield.
   “If you live through an accident like that and your friends or family don’t, you don’t want to have to face parents and try to explain why their child is no longer with them,” related Bowker.
   As the scene played out, a 911 call was made and EMS, the fire department and law enforcement offi-cers arrived to provide emergency services and assess the scene. A short while later, Guardian Air landed on the field, loaded up the “survivor” and flew her to the nearest medical facility.
   The more somber aspect was the arrival of the medical examiners, who inspected the remaining body of the boy, took pictures of the scene, then wrapped the victim in a bag and loaded him into the coroner’s van.
   “If you do drink, realize that your parents would much rather receive a call from you telling them that you’ve drank too much and that you need their help, than from a trauma nurse like me at 3 a.m. with much worse news than that,” stated Bowker.
   Students were encouraged to think before they drink, and to realize that even a small amount of alcohol can impair the body’s ability to function. “A common thing with teens is to do what’s called ‘binge drink-ing,’ which is when you down a lot of alcohol all at once. They won’t feel the full effect of the alcohol right away, because even though it was drunk fast, it takes the body awhile to absorb,” explained Bowker. This is especially dangerous, because teens get behind the wheel and do not feel impaired until they’ve already begun to drive.
   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 years in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.
   As Dev Kuhse observed the students reactions, she could tell students felt the impact of the staged event.
   “I could see that some of the kids were crying even though they knew it was staged. The possibility that it could be real upset them,” she stated.
   According to Kuhse, the response from some of the students after the event was one of surprise.
   “One of the students I spoke with, Jacob DeJesus, said he never realized how many resources it took to handle a scene. He wondered what would happen if another call came in and all the resources were tied up,” Kuhse said.
   Student Lindsey Hansen noted that she had the realization that something like that could happen to her, which is exactly the effect intended by the mock accident.
   “If just one kid is saved by watching this, if just one life is saved its worth it. I’ve seen far too many of these accidents in real life, and it’s the worst thing I deal with,” stated Kuhse.
   This was the first coordinated mock event conducted for the school, but Kuhse hopes to do more to keep kids thinking about what they have to lose by using alcohol and driving.