Drive Smart Program
This fall, MEDIC will be debuting a new program geared toward teens and distracted driving. Together with other county agencies, police and fire, MEDIC will simulate the sights and sounds of a ‘live’ car crash. As the scene progresses, students will discover that the teen ‘victim’ in our simulated car crash was not paying attention to the road, but was distracted by something inside the car.
Teen drivers face many obstacles while driving, which sometimes excludes what most people associate with teens and fatal car crashes, drunk driving. However, with the technology age, students now plug into so many mediums that distract them from the road – talking on the cell phone, texting, even watching movies. Even though parents, teachers, and the media try to convey the importance of driving without distractions, teens sometimes believe they are invincible, and that they are not the next statistic.
This is why MEDIC has designed this real life simulation for students. It brings the sights, smells and sounds of a teenage car crash to the parking lot of their high school. MEDIC will take the students from the beginning of the crash to the end when the paramedics drive away with the victim:
They will hear the initial 911 call. They will see the first responders rush to the scene with their sirens blazing. They will smell the hot metal and oil from the jaws-of-life as the firefighters remove the victim from the car. They will listen to the paramedics talk about the victim’s life-threatening injuries. And finally, they will feel the pain from the parents of the victim, when they arrive to the crash site.
This educational experience for high school students is one that they might not want to hear or see, but it is one that they need to listen to and to visualize. Students need to understand that they aren’t invincible and that can avoid being the next statistics if they just pay attention while driving.
The entire scenario is only 30 minutes out of the students’ day, however, it will be something that they will be thinking about long after MEDIC, police and the firefighters leave. Students sign a ‘contract of life’ and vow to their parents and to themselves that they will take being behind the wheel of a car seriously.
The scene is intense and told through the voice of the teen victim, however, the impact of a working car crash scene will definitely help bring to reality that driving smart is the way to live.
The program will be running from September 2009 – May 2010. If you would like to have the distracted driving program brought to your school, please contact Kristin Young at 705.943.6165 or kristiny@medic911.com.
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