Exposing the dangers of drinking and driving
Mock crash conducted for Adrian High School studentsADRIAN — Brett Springman laid motionless in the plowed corn field, several feet from where the car he was driving was smacked by a drunk driver. He had apparently flown through the windshield on impact and was unresponsive.
By: Julie Buntjer, Worthington Daily Globe
- Mock car accident in Adrian
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ADRIAN — Brett Springman laid motionless in the plowed corn field, several feet from where the car he was driving was smacked by a drunk driver.
He had apparently flown through the windshield on impact and was unresponsive.
“He’s just faking it,” blurted Brianna McCarthy. “He’s just sleeping.”
Too drunk to realize what had happened, McCarthy then turned to see her car in the ditch.
“Kourtney, who wrecked my car?” she asked.
McCarthy and Springman were among five officers in the Adrian High School Partners in Prevention program to act out a mock crash Wednesday afternoon to emphasize to their peers the dangers of drinking and driving.
In the scene, McCarthy and her friend Katy Slater had too much to drink. McCarthy was driving, and Slater was in the front seat.
Another passenger, Kourtney Kramer, was in the back seat. She was sober.
“What the heck, Brianna, I told you not to drink,” Kramer shouted at her friend as they joined Chris Reisdorfer in the search for Springman. The two guys were sober.
“My head hurts,” complained McCarthy.
“Yeah, because you had too many beers,” Kramer retorted before turning to Reisdorfer to apologize.
“I tried to tell them to stop,” she said as Reisdorfer knelt over Springman’s limp body in the field.
Kramer then looked back at McCarthy and asked, “Was it worth it? Was it worth it?
“You’re going to rot in jail because you killed someone,” screamed Kramer.
As the dialogue continued, the onlookers began to look down the county road for signs of flashing lights. It was taking a long time.
Nobles County Sheriff’s Deputy Lonnie Roloff told the crowd of mostly ninth- through 12th-grade students, to imagine that the crash occurred sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. The road was dark — who knows how long it would be before the scene was discovered?
As the minutes ticked by, the group finally started to see flashing lights in the distance. In rolled the Adrian Rescue, ambulance and fire department, along with the Lismore fire and rescue and Dingmann Funeral Home. Springman had been pronounced dead at the scene.
As his body was carried to the hearse, Roloff told students, “Say goodbye to your classmate — he’s not going to make it to school again.”
McCarthy was carted off by Deputy Roloff after failing to successfully complete several field sobriety tests, and both Slater and Reisdorfer were transported on back boards to awaiting ambulances.
Springman said he volunteered to take the role of the person who was killed because he wanted his fellow classmates to understand the damage that can be caused when a person drives while intoxicated.
“Drinking isn’t very smart, and anything can happen,” Springman said. “There can be extreme consequences.”
“We really hope this gets the point across to people,” added Slater. “(Drinking and driving is) stupid and unacceptable. No parent wants to get a phone call that their kid has been in a car accident.”
Kramer said that with the high school’s prom coming up in a couple of weeks, they wanted to show their peers the dangers of drinking and driving.
“Some kids think it’s fun to drink, and we want to teach them that it’s not,” said Kramer.
Tammi Heronimus, Partners in Prevention advisor, said the Adrian area has been fortunate not to have any recent alcohol-related fatalities.
“I think we want to make sure we don’t have any fatalities — that nobody gets hurt,” Heronimus said.
“Hopefully this is a positive thing to do for the student body so they’ll make right choices,” added McCarthy.
Following the mock crash demonstration, students returned to the school for a lyceum on drinking and driving presented by a member of the Minnesota State Patrol.
Tags: state and region, mock car crash, news, education
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