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WATCH: Students Against Drunk Driving perform mock drugged-driving crash scene

Local EMS teams aided Lacombe Composite High School students in anti-drunk/drugged driving campaign

Students at Lacombe Composite High School recently set up and performed a harrowing scene in order to encourage their peers to make smart choices behind the wheel.

“Our Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) have put together a mock crash and this year the kids have done everything,” Cosmetology Department Head at Lacombe Composite High School Darcie Zenchuk said. “It is a pretty big production and they have done an amazing job.”

The scene began with Grade 12 students waiting behind a tarped wall, where they then heard the terrifying sound of a car crash and a woman screaming.

The wall was then dropped and the students were exposed to an extremely lifelike scene, with students drenched in (fake) blood and two cars, which had clearly been involved in a motor-vehicle accident.

Local emergency response teams, including the Lacombe Fire Department and the Lacombe Police Service, then arrived on scene and began treating the incident as if it was a real scene.

One of the students who was acting as a one of the divers in the mock accident was acting as if they were under the influence of cannabis.

“Every May long weekend, we lose lives and the students decided that with the new legislation coming in that it is really important to talk about drugs and driving,” Zenchuk said. “They feel that it is a really important message to get out whether you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or distracted driving.

“We are losing way too many teenagers.”

The scene was difficult to watch, with the Grade 12 audience in attendance in stunned silence as EMS crews attended to wounded students — who’s crash makeup was created by the school’s cosmetology students.

The scene also included two students who acted out fatalities in the scene.

Zenchuk said the school has been doing the scene for a few years and they have begun to notice the impact it has on their students.

“We had students crying and talking about it, whereas before they weren’t sure what was going on,” she said. “We hadn’t perfected the acting before, but now we have noticed students really considering their decisions behind the wheel.

“This year we are hoping to get through to a few more students.”

Zenchuk added she is grateful to the support provided by local emergency response teams as well as Popow & Sons Auto Wreckers, who delivered the vehicles and had set up the scene.

“Our Emergency Response team is amazing and every time we want to do this, they bring their people and set it up as an actual crash site which makes it very realistic,” she said. “We are really grateful to them and all of our community volunteers. We are blessed to have such a great community.”

She added she hopes students and people in the community, “Make some good decisions behind the wheel and be safe.

“We want them to always be safe and make the conscience decision to make sure people around you are safe as well.”

todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com

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DRUGGED-DRIVING - Local emergency response teams aided students from Lacombe Composite High School in presenting a mock drugged-driving crash. Todd Colin Vaughan/Lacombe Express