CROTHERSVILLE
A black Volkswagen Jetta crashed into a utility pole, causing the airbags to deploy.
Once police arrived at the scene, they determined the teenage driver was drunk, and one of the back-seat passengers, also a teenager, had been drinking.
The Jaws of Life was used to remove the passenger-side doors so firefighters could pull the other two passengers out of the vehicle. The teen in the front seat was pronounced dead and was placed in the back of a hearse, and a teen in the back seat was transported from the scene by ambulance.
The good thing about this scenario is it wasn’t real.
For some people, though, it can be reality, impacting families, friends and first responders.
Every four years during the week of prom, the Crothersville High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions partners with local first responders to conduct the simulated car wreck outside the school. That way, a student is able to see it at least once while in high school, and hopefully, he or she will avoid driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or while distracted.
For Crothersville senior and SADD member Domanic Stevens, what happened in Wednesday morning’s mock wreck was reality for him at one point.
While he played the role of a back-seat passenger who was arrested in the scenario, he was once driving under the influence of drugs when he was involved in a real crash.
“I’m trying to teach kids not to do that because I’m not very good right now because of that reason,” he said.
Stevens said if a person is impaired, they don’t need to drive.
“Just stay away from drugs and alcohol, especially if you’re not legal age, and even if you are, go with a sober driver so no one gets hurt because this is serious,” he said.
CHS senior Derek Howard organized Wednesday’s mock wreck and also participated as a firefighter with the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department.
He said he spent the past month contacting local first responders to see if they would participate, and his father, Jason Howard, also a firefighter, helped come up with the scenario.
Crothersville-Vernon Township personnel were joined by officials from the Redding Township Volunteer Fire Department, Crothersville Police Department, Jackson County Emergency Medical Services, Adams Family Funeral Home and Crematory and Howard’s Wrecker Service.
“Especially me being a senior at school with me responding at the fire department and being able to be a part of this, it shows just how real it is, that not only the people that you know are in the wreck, but the people that you know might be cleaning that wreck up,” Howard said. “It doesn’t only affect them and their families. It’s the people involved that grew up with them.”
Howard said the exercise made a very good impact.
“This sends the message of ‘This is what could happen, this is what we deal with all of the time and if you’re going to be out drinking and driving, there’s no excuse for that,'” he said. “Especially with prom coming up (tonight), the message for this to be sent was ‘This is a real-life scenario, and our community does not want to see this.’ That’s why we do things like this, to show them what could happen.”
On Saturday, two teens were headed to the Hamilton Heights High School prom when they were involved in a two-vehicle crash in Hamilton County. Neither of them survived, and two other passengers were injured.
The cause of the wreck is still under investigation, and officials have ruled out alcohol or drugs playing a role in the crash.
Donald Crater, a Crothersville-Vernon Township firefighter and emergency medical technician who participated in Wednesday’s mock wreck, told the students there have been other wrecks around this time of year due to impairment or distracted driving.
“We don’t want to be that next community,” he said. “Everybody has been cooped up for a year (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and everybody wants to get out and make up for lost time. If you try to make up for lost time, you wind up losing more time on the back end.”
Drinking and driving is not a joke, Crater said.
“It’s terrifying,” he said. “You’re in a car going 60 mph down a road, and you don’t have control of what you’re doing, and it sounds like no big deal. Just like going across the railroad crossing sounds like no big deal until it is.”
If someone suspects a person is going to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Crater said it’s OK to call for help or speak up and tell that person not to drive.
“It’s much better to realize a mistake and stop it in progress than it is to keep going because you’ll probably get to make it home,” he said.
Redding Township Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Roy and Crothersville-Vernon Township Firefighter Sally Deaton echoed those thoughts.
“Call your parents, call a friend, call somebody. They will come get you before they would want you to be in this situation,” Roy said.
Deaton told the students they could call her or another firefighter.
“Always know that there is someone here that will come and get you without asking questions or judging you,” she said.
Crothersville SADD sponsor Matthew Otte reinforced that message.
“We all make mistakes, and some of us get away with them. You don’t want to be the one that doesn’t,” he said. “You’ve got to be there for each other, be there for your friend. They may not like what you say. It doesn’t matter. You’ve got to tell them ‘You can’t drive’ or ‘I’m not getting in the car.’ You want to stand up for yourself and your friend.”