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Students learn the dangers of drinking and driving

Emergency services shows harsh reality of what impaired driving can cause
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Students from various schools in the area were shown a real-life mock collision involving an impaired driver on Tuesday. Emergency services from the community played their part in showing the students the effects impaired driving can have

The students of Lacombe Composite High School (LCHS), Central Alberta Christian High School (CACHE) and Lacombe Outreach were given a real look at what could happen when drivers are impaired during this past Tuesday’s mock collision as part of Operation Safe Grad.

Members of the Lacombe Police Services (LPS), Lacombe Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services joined forces at the LCHS to show what an impaired collision would look like.

The scene was set with two females in a car who had hit an off-road vehicle; the driver of the quad was pronounced dead on the scene. The students faced a chilling moment when an actor who played the sister of the deceased ran to the scene, screaming and crying. Police showed up shortly after and from there the rest of the emergency services were called including the fire department and ambulances.

Police found that the driver of the car as well as the passenger both had alcohol in their system as they were driving home from a party but due to extensive injuries on both parts, they were transferred to the hospital before further questioning.

LPS Const. Travis Marcott explained that having these kinds of demonstrations really gets the point across to students, and the chances of this happening to them are very real.

“Our main goal is to get the message across to students not to drink and drive. Like I said to the classes inside, your parents might be upset that you call at three in the morning that you’re drunk and need a ride home but they would much rather you call them and they pick you up than to have me at their door telling them that their son or daughter was killed due to impaired driving.”

Rebecca Cameron, a Grade 11 student from CACHE, said the mock collision was quite intense, and it gets the point across.

“It was kind of cool but kind of scary at the same time because I know that kind of thing can happen in real life. But it’s cool to actually see it happen,” she said. “If I do go out to drink, I’m going to call my mom at 3 a.m. even though she might kill me.”

This is the second year that a mock collision has been put on for students, and Marcott said last year was successful and hopes to continue doing this program in the future.

“We did this last year and we had a lot of success with it. I talked to a number of students after the presentation and it seemed like the message really hit home seeing not only the collision, but seeing their classmates involved in the collision.” He added they are looking forward to doing it again next year, and are hoping to expand the lesson to distracted driving as well.

shelby.craig@lacombeexpress.com