Simulation a grim lesson in driving risks

Twisted metal, shattered glass, the smell of alcohol, and pavement littered with bloody, broken bodies. That was the tragic scene that unfolded Tuesday morning in The Hanger cinemaplex parking lot as the wail of sirens filled the air and a medical evacuation helicopter landed nearby to carry victims from the scene.

Fortunately, none of it was real. The "accident" — a perfect storm of bad judgment that included beer, marijuana, helmetless scooter riders and texting — was the latest installment in a series of annual docudramas produced for area high school students by RAIDD, which stands for Raising Awareness Involving Distracted Driving.

The organization was founded by Julia Herold and Melisssa Dinges of Shenandoah, Iowa, both of whom have lost family members in distracted driving-related accidents.

Herold said her young grandchildren, ages 4 and 5, were killed in 2010 when a car driven by their mother, who survived, was struck by an 18-year-old motorist who was texting while speeding through a no-passing zone at more than 70 mph. Dinges lost her sister in a similar incident.

Since founding RAIDD, the two women, along with a group of fellow activists, most of whom have also lost family members to distracted or impaired driving, have produced docudramas at 16 schools in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.

Both Herold and Dinges said they favor stronger laws that would prohibit cell phone and computer use — hands free or not — by anyone behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

Dinges cited statistics showing that motorists are four times more likely to have a wreck while texting or talking on the phone than while driving with a .08 blood alcohol content, Missouri's legal limit.  

Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White said the intent of the docudrama was to reach teens at an age when they are first starting to drive and "explore their world."

"We want to teach them that they are not invincible," White said, "that there are bad decisions you can make that have permanent consequences."

The Maryville event was attended by students from all seven Nodaway County public school districts. Schools from Bedford, Iowa, northern Andrew County and Worth County participated as well.

As the exercise began, more than 200 teenagers filed past the simulated wreck in which heavily made-up student actors created an eerily realistic tableau of a fatal traffic accident.

One girl, her face covered with fake blood and ghost-gray makeup, appeared to have a badly broken leg. An even bloodier young man was trapped beneath one of two crumpled sedans that appeared to have been involved in a "T-bone" collision. A demolished motor scooter lay in pieces nearby.

Once all the students were seated on rows of portable bleachers, the "victims" started screaming in pain. Then two young men burst out of one of the cars, scurried to pick up empty beer cans scattered across the pavement, and fled as sirens blared and police officers, firefighters and ambulance crews rushed onto the scene.

One first-responder walked from victim to victim — there were nine altogether, including two "fatalities — and marked them with "triage tags," so that medics would know who was in most urgent need of first-aid.

Missouri State Trooper Dale Reuter, who acted as moderator, warned students that the "exercise is very serious, and that's how I want you to take it." But no one in the bleachers appeared in the mood to laugh.

Instead, hundreds of eyes turned skyward as the helicopter ambulance appeared overhead and a young girl strapped to a gurney was wheeled toward it. While this was going on, rescue workers were treating the less-badly hurt, and firefighters used the "jaws of life" to cut the top off one of the sedans in which several teens were trapped.

Finally, after half an hour of controlled, simulated chaos, the accident scene grew quiet and empty. The injured were on their way to the hospital. The officers had departed to file their reports. And the dead were forever silent.

"We don't want to do this anymore," Reuter told the students, some of whom were visibly shaken. "But you are going to be the ones who make that decision. You are the only people who can make sure we don't have to do this job."