VIDEO – Grade 11 students from Brooks Secondary School visited Powell River General Hospital over three days to learn from emergency workers, hospital staff and accident survivors the consequences of drinking and driving.
During the Prevention of Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) Program, held from Monday, February 6 to Wednesday, February 8, students went through a series of stations and talks intended to show them the variety of ways that drinking and driving can affect them and their loved ones.
The program is already hosted in a variety of communities across Canada, but this is the first time that it has been held in Powell River. Many agencies came together to organize the event. RCMP Constable Chris Bakker helped organize the day and said that all those involved felt like it would be a worthwhile program to host in the community.
“I honestly hope that I never have to deal with another fatality involving students as a result of risk-taking behaviour or alcohol and drinking and driving,” said Bakker. “I hope that we can get to the students and that we never have to deal with that again. I don’t know if that’s a reality but if we can just get to a few of them I think we’ve done a good job today.”
To start off the day the students gathered at the scene of a mock car accident. In the situation police have been tipped off that someone may be driving under the influence of alcohol. By the time police catch up to the vehicle it is too late. The driver has crashed the car, sustaining significant damage to the vehicle and throwing the passenger, who was not wearing a seatbelt, through the windshield and onto the street.
One by one emergency personnel arrive, with sirens and lights on, to deal with the mock situation. Fake blood and guts lay on the windshield and by the body of the thrown passenger, who emergency personnel pronounce dead on the scene. Slowly, with concerns over spinal injuries, paramedics and firefighters remove the injured driver from the car, put her on a stretcher and take her to hospital.
From there students divided up to go through a series of stations. The first station took place in the emergency department’s trauma room. There, a nurse and paramedic explained everything they would do with a patient with the symptoms of the mock survivor. In graphic detail students were told about and shown such things as a valve that is inserted in the chest cavity to help inflate a collapsed lung and tubes that can be fed down a person’s throat to open up airways.
A number of students fainted in the warm, enclosed room over the course of the three days, said hospital staff.
Another station showed the long-term, sometimes lifetime, effects of such an accident. In the rehabilitation centre at the hospital students were shown a variety of devices used for rehabilitation and by people with permanent injuries such as paralysis. A hospital staff member explained the purpose of catheters and colostomy bags, as well as mouth-operated wheelchairs and various braces.
Students had a choice whether or not they wanted to enter the hospital’s morgue, where the victim of the mock accident would have ended up. Most students chose to go in and most were very quiet as they were shown the cold chamber and the necropsy table where autopsies are performed.
In another room students learned about the legal consequences of drinking and driving. RCMP explained what the laws are for drinking and driving, and also speeding, and what the punishments are for breaking them. They also discussed the potential civil legal consequences of drinking and driving, should someone who drove while under the influence of alcohol be sued by an injured passenger or the family of a victim.
In the final presentation of the day the students gathered to meet and hear the story of two women who were hit by a car while walking along Joyce Avenue in 2004. The 25-year-old driver who hit them had a history of drug abuse and subsequent seizures. Jody Lloyd, 51, died in the collision and Heather Parsons and Marianne Smisko both received life-changing injuries. Both Parsons and Smisko were there to meet with students.
Smisko told the students how the three women were out taking an evening walk as they often did. They were hit from behind by the driver, who crossed the centre line on the road and hit the women on the sidewalk. She explained to them the grief felt by so many at the loss of Lloyd and the lengthy road to health Parsons and Smisko underwent. She also talked about the lengthy legal proceedings they were involved in for over two years after the accident and the toll that took.
“It was an opportunity to hopefully have an impact on these kids that are beginning to drive and take that adult responsibility,” Smisko told the Peak. “I hope that they know how powerful it is to drive a vehicle and that you’re on a road where there’s many innocent people...and that they’re really fully aware of the responsibility that comes with driving a car.”
While working as a paramedic in the interior of BC at the beginning of his career with BC Ambulance Service, Powell River Unit Chief Rob Southcott said he didn’t see a year go by where a young person didn’t end up dead because of a car crash. He said it usually happened in the spring and quite often there was alcohol involved. He also said that more often than not it is the innocent passengers or the occupants of the other vehicle that end up dead or severely injured because of the drunk driver.
“It’s devastating to witness the tragedy of young people dying unnecessarily because of alcohol and the mixture of alcohol and driving,” said Southcott. “I’ve seen such mayhem on the roads.”
Southcott said all the paramedics taking part in the event were volunteering their time and using equipment and an ambulance on loan from Clarity Safety Solutions. He said that although it’s hard to quantify the success of such programs, any effort to prevent accidents before they happen is worthwhile.
