THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605210188
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 64 lines
There were screams, beer bottles breaking, sirens and body bags.
Another drunken-driving fatality?
Not exactly.
The crash was part of ``Operation Prom,'' a staged drunken-driving accident demonstration complete with sobriety tests, simulated injuries, ambulances and a hearse.
The concept is to heighten awareness of the risks of drinking and driving during the high school prom season.
Held last week at Maury High School and attended by several hundred students, some pupils chuckled when the event began but went soberly quiet as the show unfolded.
Police, fire and paramedical personnel re-enacted a fatal crash scene. Screams from dying and injured victims trapped inside a crushed car echoed over the loudspeakers. The drunken driver was arrested. One passenger had to be removed from the vehicle with the ``jaws of life.'' Another, lying beneath a bloodied white sheet, was taken off in a hearse.
``This is what we have to see every year during the prom season, except it's real,'' said commentator Stan Glaser, a paramedic with Chesapeake Emergency Medical Services. ``We can actually smell the alcohol in the blood.''
Students said the drill made them think.
``This was effective,'' said Joey Lovell, an 18-year-old Maury senior. ``It's much better than someone just telling you about it. It's an actual scene.''
``It changed my mind,'' said Gabbey Utt, a 17-year-old Maury senior. ``I'll make sure to get someone's keys if they've had too much to drink.''
The event was coordinated by Mercy Tidewater Ambulance, a privately owned rescue company in Virginia Beach. A team effort, the graphic show included personnel and equipment from the Norfolk Police Department and the city's fire and paramedical units. Tidewater Towing provided the crushed car, with H.D. Oliver Funeral Home lending the hearse. Glaser, also a disc jockey, emceed the event. Maury students were the actors.
``We wanted a realistic demo, not a bunch of gory pictures,'' said Richard Koch, managing director for Mercy Tidewater Ambulance. ``We wanted to show the kids what ambulance operators see when this happens.''
Mercy staged its first re-enactments in 1994 at Maury and Booker T. Washington high schools. The event has been held at Maury every year since and was shown earlier this month at Cox High School in Virginia Beach. The simulation is timed to coincide with prom season, which generally runs through May.
The show has had positive effects, Koch said.
``In the three years of doing this, there hasn't been a single prom-related drinking and driving accident at any of the three schools.''
Koch said that similar re-enactments are done at prom time throughout the country and that the shows will continue at Maury and around the area next year.
``We can probably do about one demonstration a week because of the time, people and equipment required to do a professional job,'' Koch explained. ``We do it on a first-come, first-serve basis, whatever school calls us first.'' MEMO: For more information on ``Operation Prom,'' call 490-8297. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Maury students watch the ``Operation Prom'' staged accident.
KEYWORDS: DRUNK DRIVING NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB