OLDS — Sirens blared as a police car, fire truck and ambulance all arrived just west of the Fire Hall at about 9 a.m. May 3.
But fortunately, it wasn’t a real emergency.
It was a the annual P.A.R.T.Y. mock accident, held to underline for students the horrific consequences that could occur if they drink or consume drugs and then drive, or if they text or look at texts while driving.
P.A.R.T.Y. stands for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth. The program is jointly carried out by first responders, FortisAlberta staff and representatives of École Olds High School.
Several members of Olds town council also attended the event.
At the scene, a couple of vehicles were in collision with each other. A few students acted as youth involved in the crash. A youth lay sprawled out the windshield of one.
A telephone pole lay across the scene as well, with wires dangling.
Protective services director and Olds Fire Chief Justin Andrew served as the MC for the event.
He explained what was going on to a crowd of high school students, parents and caregivers sitting on or standing behind nearby bleachers.
A FortisAlberta employee was called in to deal with the telephone pole and its wiring to make the scene safe for first responders.
Firefighters – including a handful of fire cadets from the high school – used a hydraulic tool to rip off the doors of one vehicle to get access to the “injured.”
A youth in one of the cars, alleged to be the instigator of the crash, was interviewed by a police officer, handcuffed and put in the police car.
Eventually, one person, determined in the scene to be “dead,” was pulled out and simply left nearby while first responders continued their work.
"It’s a terrible situation for the people involved in the accident and for the responders both that we have to work around a dead body. And it’s even worse if it was a dead body of a youth or a child," Andrew said.
“There’s far too many first responders out there today that are taking their own lives because of the trauma that they’re involved with and they witness,” Andrew said.
“So this is not a victimless crime. This is something that – the person that’s deceased, laying on the road is not the only victim here.
“So those are the things that we want you guys to understand and think about going forward into adulthood and that actions have consequences.
"We want to give you as many tools and knowledge as we can to make good, positive changes.”
A woman acting as a hysterical mother rushed to the scene and was led away by responders.
“I can honestly say from my experience that when the mother comes and screams and comes running in there, every single time that that happens it makes my skin crawl and it’s because I've witnessed it and I’ve been there and it absolutely has an lasting impact,” Andrew said.
He said these days often people are spurred to scene by learning about it via social media.
"Then we have to take action to remove this person because it’s dangerous," Andrew said. “We’re trying to protect yourself and protect the responders still trying to do their job.”
He said behind the scenes, volunteers with Victim Services are consoling those affected by the crash and explaining what to expect next.
Also, RCMP have the grim task of informing next-of-kin about the deceased.
“Can you imagine that being your job, that you have to go and absolutely ruin somebody’s life by telling them that their loved one has been killed by an impaired driver or a car accident or anything,” Andrew asked.
“There’s very few things in life I think that I could fear more than having to do that.”
Once all the passengers had been removed and assessed, an “injured” victim was loaded into an ambulance which left the scene with sirens blaring.
On behalf of the coroner, funeral home representatives came, collected the “body” with help from a few firefighters and drove away.
Andrew described that task as “a very sombre job.”
“Every time that somebody has a contact in a situation like this, it leaves a lasting impression and a scar. And it’s one of those scars that never goes away,” he said.
He noted that traffic analysts may be called to the scene to determine exactly how the collision occurred. All relevant information, including items in the vehicles, is collected.
The demonstration was completed in less than an hour. Then the students split up into groups to attend other aspects of the program, like a trauma presentation and a visit to a local funeral home.
Andrew said it’s better to call parents or caregivers and ask for a ride rather than drive after consuming alcohol or drugs and possibly injure – or kill – someone.
“These are things that are completely avoidable and that’s what we’re here to talk about today, is the fact that we don’t want this to happen to any one of you. We don’t want it to happen to your friends, your family or anybody.
“These deaths can be completely avoided, and it’s all about making good choices,” he said.
He urged youth to avoid doing dangerous things like texting while driving, driving erratically or stunting.
He said emergency crews are aware of youth stunting and driving erratically at places like the Rotary Athletic Park and behind the Olds Municipal Library.
“As soon as you take your eyes off the road, that’s when things happen,” Andrew said.
“Could you imagine having to go to jail because you killed somebody for checking, for responding to a text? That would be a pretty terrible thing, right?
"There is absolutely nothing more important than focusing your attention on driving.”
Andrew also said too many people don’t know or understand that the rules of the road require them to pull over to the right and stop when emergency vehicles come upon them.
He also warned that more than one emergency vehicle may follow the first one or two, so be watchful and patient.
Andrew said today’s electric or hybrid vehicles add extra challenges for first responders.
“Now with hybrid technology or electric cars, you don’t even know if the vehicle’s running, so that’s the other factor that we have to worry about. And we also have to worry about the high voltage of the cars.
“So cars like Teslas and other things like that that are fully electric, we have to be very careful, because cutting pieces of cars with hydraulic fuel is not conducive to health and wellness.”
Grade 10 student Stone Grover was among those attending the event.
“I thought it was fun. I think it really helped to understand the dangers of drinking and driving and distracted driving,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
Grover said a discussion a police officer gave during a visit to the funeral home really hit home for him.
“He was talking to us about some accidents and it really kind of stuck with me. It was kind of eye-opening, how it really is, getting in a car accident,” Grover said.
“There was this one accident where a vehicle flipped on to its side and a pedestrian was able to help out a four-year-old girl, but the rest of her family was killed in an explosion caused by the vehicle.”
Grover said Andrew’s talk about stunting also gave him pause.
"It definitely made me think maybe if I was to do something stupid to maybe think twice about what I was going to do,” he said.
