MAYNARDVILLE (WATE) – More than 300 Union County High School juniors and seniors witnessed a mock crash aimed to deter students from using drugs and alcohol.
“Seeing is believing,” said Mike Miller, coordinator for the Union County drug coalition. “I can tell them about a crash but they can’t perceive it like I can because I have seen actual crashes.”
Emergency personnel demonstrated a real-life response to a crash scene, with even UT’s LifeStar making an appearance to perform an airlift. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), someone is injured in a drunk driving accident every 90 seconds, and someone dies in a drunk driving crash every 53 minutes.
“I mean it just looks so real,” Maggie Sanders said. “It opens your eyes.”
Students said the exercise served as a wake-up call and hit home for many observers.
“Because there’s a lot of people that come out here and does this, gets in wrecks, over a DUI,” Cameron Paul said.
This is the second year the school has hosted the event, an effort to urge students to think about the consequences of their actions.
“It makes me feel like I don’t want to drink and drive or anything,” Shelby Egger said. “It makes me want to tear up and feel like I don’t want to do this.”
Administrators said if the mock crash saves at least one life, it’s well worth it.
“If you do drugs, you now know. You will do it full well where it could lead you,” Miller said. “So I guess in a nutshell, we would say, I don’t want any of them to do drugs not knowing what the consequences will be. They will know.”
