Mock wreck portrays consequences of poor decisions

Prom season seems like a very good time to talk to high school students about making good decisions. But sometimes talk about such subjects goes in one ear and dissipates into adolescent ethers before it even has time to travel out the other.

Photos by Scooter MacMillan. CVU Road was closed for almost an hour while a tragic wreck resulting from poor decisions was portrayed.

Instead of just talking about the dangers of poor decision making mixed with alcohol or drugs, area fire and rescue services staged a mock crash at Champlain Valley Union High on May 15.

Hinesburg Fire Chief Prescott Nadeau decided to revive an event that had been regularly staged until around eight years ago. He said staging the mock crash sort of lost steam some years ago, and then COVID really put a damper on it.

The rescue workers and teacher and student volunteers portraying victims worked to make the “crash” as realistic as possible.

Two wrecked vehicles were staged with victims that had been painted with makeup to look like blood and other injuries to intensify the portrayal of the consequences of adolescents celebrating inappropriately and out of control because of substances they might have ingested on nights that should be festive rites of passage instead of long-lasting tragedies with possibly lethal results.

In the portrayal, one of the “victims” was even pulled from a wrecked car, placed on a gurney and covered with a sheet to signify that they had “died.” A helicopter even flew in, landing on CVU’s baseball field to depict the necessity of life flighting “victims” with critical injuries.

Students were silent and immersed in the depiction of a wreck and its consequences. After the vignette students went to the gym to debrief and subdue from any triggering emotions they may have felt.

“It can be very emotional,” Nadeau said. Participants were encouraged to lean into the intense emotions of the situation they were portraying.

The crowd of rescue workers went about the emergency tasks completely serious and in character. There was no small talk or joking. Students were able to see as rescue workers used jaws of life to tear doors off the wrecked vehicles in order to get victims out.

Asked if the lights and sirens were triggering, Josh Flore of the Shelburne Police Department and Charlotte Constable said he had just stepped away from the scene to gather himself because it was so realistic.

The scene was fraught with sad memories for those who have been at the scene of a tragic accident.

One of the student “victims,” Miranda Stewart said she volunteered for the simulation because “driving under the influence is really a big issue and having this will help inform students of its consequences.”