Last Wednesday, Grade 10-12 students from Kipling School were taken to scene of what appeared to be a serious car accident.
The accident was staged as part of P.A.R.T.Y (Prevention of Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth) event. As event organizer Raelynn Fargo (Educational Assistant at Kipling School) explains, this was not the first time that students in Kipling have witnessed such an ‘accident’.
“This was the 8th time we’ve done a Mock Accident. I was the advisor for our SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving) Group, and we did the Mock Accident/ P.A.R.T.Y event as a group. When our SADD Group dissolved, we decided to continue doing this.”
“We’ve been doing a Mock Accident P.A.R.T.Y event every two years. But when COVID hit, of course, things like this couldn’t happen. So, this is the first one that we’ve done since 2017.”
Fargo points out that the event has proven to be extremely impactful in the past.
“We’ve had lots of input from students over the years and we’ve never had anyone say that the day was wasted. This year, we have a former student (Makyla Stender) coming back to help us. She said that she was so impacted by this when she was in high school, that she wanted to help with this as an adult.”
At the mock accident scene, three student actors took on the role of those involved in the accident. Cyson Romanow portrayed the impaired driver who had caused the crash. Ava Ruthven portrayed a deceased passenger and Olivia Dedecker was a passenger in critical condition who was trapped in one of the vehicles.
Once the buses had arrived and the students were assembled at the scene, the Kipling Fire Department, Ambulance and RCMP arrived and began doing everything that they would do at a real accident scene.
As this drama unfolded, Daniel Lyons (Kipling EMS) acted as ‘narrator’, explaining to the students what personnel at the scene were doing and why.
After it was determined that one passenger was ‘deceased’, employees from the local funeral home also arrived. The ‘body’ was put into a body bag and taken away. The ‘impaired driver’ was then handcuffed and led away by the RCMP. Firefighters worked to free the ‘critically injured passenger’ who was taken away by ambulance.
However, Fargo notes that the parent of the ‘deceased’ passenger (Ava Ruthven’s mom – Jacqueline Fargo LaRiviere) also arrived on the scene before her daughter’s ‘body’ was taken away – something which she says made the scene heart wrenchingly realistic.
“Jackie came to the crash site and acted as though she’d just gotten a call that her daughter was in an accident. Having her come to the scene and react the way that any parent would react – made the whole thing even more real to everyone.”
Students were then bused to the Kipling Integrated Health Centre – where they were divided into groups to attend four different 25-minute sessions. At those sessions, the story of the three individuals involved in this accident continued (as told from perspective of those who have witnessed many such stories unfold in the past).
In the Ambulance Bay, EMS personnel spoke to the students about the procedures and decisions involved in keeping patients alive in route to the hospital. Meanwhile, medical staff in another room struggled to save the ‘critically injured patient’ from the accident scene, as they described the possible outcomes that such patients face after they arrive in the Emergency Ward.
During the RCMP session, the ‘impaired driver’ sat in handcuffs while officers explained the charges he was facing. Along with loss of their Driver’s License, fines and a jail sentence, Staff Sargent Dallyn Holmstrom (Broadview RCMP) noted that an impaired driver will often face other long-term consequences (even if nobody is injured or killed in the accident that they caused).
“If you have an accident while driving impaired, you will be responsible for the damage that SGI (or your insurance provider) would normally have covered.
“So, if you wreck a $50,000 truck, you’re responsible for that. You won’t be able to get your license back until you clear your account with SGI. Some people do that by agreeing to make monthly payments. But that can take a long time. I know of one individual who is still making monthly payments for an accident that happened 15 years ago.”
At the Kipling Firehall, members with the Kipling Fire Department outlined the work that they do to remove victims from the vehicles at such accidents. During that session, Matt Gesell (Volunteer Firefighter and teacher) spoke about the memories of past accidents that he carries with him… and the memories that survivors are forced to carry as well.
“Whenever I drive from Kipling to Carlyle or Montmartre – there are places along the highway where I can vividly remember an accident that we were at. I can remember if it was day or night. I remember what time of year it was. I remember the people’s faces.”
“Everyone’s experience with an accident scene is different…vague or vivid memories of the lights…people and screams. But for the victim that is trapped in the car, the sounds of the metal snapping when we cut off the car door or spread the dash apart using the Jaws of Life… that’s something that stays with you for the rest of your life.
Gesell also offered students a blunt warning.
“Even in a bad accident – a seatbelt can save your life. I remember we went to one MVA where a person had been thrown from the car and landed on the other side of some railroad tracks, one hundred feet from the accident. When arriving on the scene we had been told that there were 4 people in the car. But we could only find three. We started a search. But it was 2 a.m. Because it was dark, it took us some time to find that fourth person.
“You might have heard of the term the ‘golden hour’. When a serious accident occurs, and injuries are life threatening, if you can get that person medical treatment within that hour ,their chances of survival are better.
“But if it takes us 20 minutes to get to the scene of the accident and then we have to spend another 20 minutes looking for a person that’s been thrown from the vehicle – how much of that ‘golden hour’ is left?
“The moral of the story is this – wear your seat belt.”
At noon, the students took part in a Disability Lunch at the Community Centre. Each student had some kind of disability and had to learn how to eat with that disability or find someone who could feed them.
After lunch, Grades 7-9 students from Kipling along with Grades 7-8 students from Kennedy Langbank School joined those who had been to the accident scene that morning, to hear Kevin Brooks (Inspirational Speaker, Author and Comedian).
Brooks was the impaired driver in an accident that left him paralyzed and cost a close friend his life. The story which the students had witnessed unfolding throughout the day – ended with Kevin Brooks’ story – which he shared with them during a two-hour session that afternoon.
