THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605220130
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 50 lines
There were screams, breaking beer bottles, 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.
Held last week at Maury High School in Norfolk 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 senior at the school. ``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 Virginia Beach's Cox High. The simulation is timed to coincide with prom season, which generally runs throughout 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.'' MEMO: For more information on ``Operation Prom'' call 490-8297. by CNB