Drive Wise…
On May 7th, local law enforcement, emergency services and fire departments put on a safety presentation to the Freshman classes from Wall, Philip and Kadoka. Philip High School hosted the event and was gracious enough to supply the space, time and a lot of the equipment needed.
The purpose of the presentations was to educate the students on the hazards of drinking or doing illegal drugs and driving, the necessity of wearing seatbelts and the possible consequences of their actions. There were speakers, classroom presentations, skits and hands-on demonstrations.
The morning was started with a welcome from Trooper Kelly Stern. The first speaker was Lila Doud from the Rapid City MADD chapter. Then Jack Lieseth from Wall gave a presentation outlining his crash from 2006. He was driving a pickup that had 8 passengers when he lost control on a gravel road and rolled. Several of the kids were hurt and one suffered significant serious injuries. He was arrested for Vehicular Battery and DUI. He went through the whole process of how this affected his life and how it changed almost everything.
After the speakers, the freshmen were split into several small groups and sent to stations for different activities. The parking lot was turned into a driving course with traffic cones that they would negotiate with golf carts. They did this with an officer riding shotgun and their first trip through was to show them how they drive unimpaired. On the second trip through they wore the Fatal Vision goggles that simulates intoxication over the legal driving limit. Local emergency services and fire departments set up two more stations with ambulances, rescue trucks and junked cars. Here they showed them all their tools and how they are able to save lives on crash scenes. There was also a classroom presentation on Drug Impaired Driving with videos showing that impairment is not limited to alcohol.
After lunch they came back to the gym where there was a skit put on by fellow students. Then a 911 call was broadcast for them to hear. Afterwards they filed out to the gravel parking lot where a mock traffic crash had been set up. Several students had volunteered and were waiting with moulage and simulated injuries. The law enforcement, emergency services and fire departments responded to the scene and showed what happens in the aftermath of a crash. Life Flight came in and flew out the most critical patient. The other victims were transported out on the ambulances, except for one that had suffered simulated fatal injuries. D.J. Rush from Rush Funeral Home arrived and performed his Coroner duties, then removed the volunteer as he would a victim, from the scene.
Once the scene was cleared, the students went back inside the gym. Pennington County Deputy McPhereson read a poem, Paramedic Dody Weller gave a short speech and Jamie Kockenbacher from the Alcohol Services Center in Rapid City also gave a presentation. With that the presentation was concluded. Hopefully all of this will positively influence the decisions these students make in the future.
This is the third annual presentation that has been done. The first two were done at the Wall High School, but it was decided to rotate among the participating schools. The goal is to save lives. It is hoped that by providing the real world knowledge of what can and does happen with alcohol and drugs, the students will make better and more responsible decisions.
Also, we would like to take this opportunity to ask the communities to also support the above goals. Please lead by example and never drink and drive. Remember to buckle up; every trip, every time.
We would like to thank the following entities and departments for making this possible:
Philip High School, Wall High School, Kadoka High School, South Dakota Highway Patrol, Badlands National Park Service Rangers and Fire Rescue, Haakon Co Sheriff’s Office, Philip Police Dept, Pennington Co Sheriff’s Office, Jackson Co Sheriff’s Office, Kadoka Police Dept, Wall Fire Dept, Wall Ambulance Dept, Philip Ambulance, Philip Fire Dept, Kadoka Fire Dept, Kadoka Ambulance Dept, USAF Moulage Team, Rush Funeral Home, Les’ Body Shop of Philip, the Knights of Columbus Chapter of Philip and Rapid City Regional Life Flight.
Click below to view a slideshow of photos taken during the mock accident:
May 27th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
We can only hope that the kids will always think of these scenes before getting into a vehicle. Unfortunately drinking and drugs don’t have to always be involved for an accident like this to occur. Just kids goofing around and not paying attention to what is going on around them. Keep them all in your prayers