[Texas T]

M2, I thought this might be of some interest to you...

I participated in a mock drunk driving accident scene today at a local high school in which two carloads of kids and one on a motorcyle were involved. We had two DOA, both drivers were banged up but uninjured enough to get out of the car and "walk the walk", and four that were transported by ambulance to local hospitals for treatment.

But the best part was when PHI's Sky Med arrived and landed right in the road outside the school parking lot where we were doing the accident scene. The chopper made a pass overhead, banked to the right in a 360, and then came straight in to land on the road in front of us. We loaded the last "most critical" kid into the chopper and they fired up, lifted off, and headed to the nearest hospital.

I played the part of the Grim Reaper (hope to have pictures tomorrow) and accompanied the student from the parking lot to the waiting chopper, stood by while she was loaded up, and then remained there until they closed the doors and got ready to light the fire again. The pilot took it straight up about 30 feet, turned a little to the left, and then took it between some trees and was on his way.

An (old) article about the "Shattered Lives" program can be found here:
http://www.thebulletin.com/archives/...endrinking.htm

And a news story about Sky Med can be found here:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=183407&rfi=6

We're in Montgomery County and we just started using this service.

The program was pretty neat overall, and pretty touching. As we pulled one young lady out of class and read her obituary to the rest of the class she broke down as she stood with us.

We'll be doing it again next month at Montgomery HS in case anyone in the area is interested in seeing it. May 12th.

By the way, in this progam, everyone who survived the accident scene and was transported to the hospital will die. We then have to notify the parents at home or work of the death of their child. We even had the coroner's meat wagon show up to pick up the two DOA bodies at the scene after their parents identified the bodies (every attempt is made to make this as realistic as possible). While the kids watching (the entire senior class) were full of giggles at the beginning of the program, they were quiet as a mouse by the end.

[M2 Carbine]

WOW, awesome T.

That sounds like one hell of a program.

Quite a very realistic learning experience for everyone involved, especially the kids.

Having the "parents identified the bodies", man how powerful is that.

You have to feel good to be a part of something like that.^c


T, you ought to put this on GNG also, it's really interesting.

[Texas T]

Originally posted by M2 Carbine
T, you ought to put this on GNG also, it's really interesting.

I started to post it last night but it's going to be really long to properly describe everything. Since I was in costume I couldn't take any photos but one of my fellow volunteers took about 50 shots and I'm waiting for him to email them to me.

Once I get those and get them posted on my web site I'll throw something into GNG.

Here's a current story about yesterday's event from one of the local papers...
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=180944&rfi=6

Another tidbit... about 3-4 years ago we had a HS drunk driving incident in which a kid rolled his Jeep. 3-4 of his friends (boys and girls) were ejected and killed during the rollover. As in many of these cases, the drunk driver survived, was convicted, and is now doing time at Huntsville.

Either yesterday or today (it's 2 day program) the father of that boy AND the boy himself will speak to the entire class. They are going to bus him down here under guard just to do this. Hopefully his talk will really reach into the hearts and minds of these kids and get them to think twice. Prom and Graduation are just around the corner and we don't want to lose any kids this year as we have in the past.

[ateamer]

Bah, I am very skeptical about the "Every 15 Minutes" program. A few years ago, one of our local schools started using it. A few weeks afterward, three kids were burned to death and one maimed when their drunk classmate crashed the car in which they were riding into a tree. He did eight years in prison. They all attended, and some acted in, Every 15 Minutes. A week after the crash, to mourn their friends, the other kids had a big blowout of a party, in which large amounts of alcohol were consumed. Great success.

[Texas T]

Play "It's a Small World" theme music here...

One of the flight crew was in the store today to make a purchase and we chatted about the effectiveness of the program. He wasn't as hard core against it as ateamer, but had more of a "wait and see" attitude. He'll be out at the other event on May 12th as well.

Still waiting for the pictures... :(

[Texas T]

Here we go...
A full set of "thumbnailed" photos is available HERE. Each image is about 400k in size so it will take a while to load if you aren't on broadband.

Innocent motorcyclist..


Life Flight (Sky Med) on approach...


Preparing to lift off after loading the patient...