MOCK ACCIDENT MEANT TO HIT HOME

It started with a blond college student running down the steps of Academic Hall, screaming at the sight of the purple Pontiac Bonneville smashed up against a tree, and the bodies slumped inside.

"Somebody get help! Please, somebody help me," she pleaded, attracting the attention of college students on their way to or from midday classes Monday. She is standing the in the midst of several empty beer cans, strewn from the vehicle upon impact.

In the distance, the wails of a University police car could be heard. In the end, two ambulances, a fire department rescue vehicle and two police cars will have responded, one occupant would be declared dead, two others would be transported to the hospital with serious injuries, and the driver would be arrested for drunk driving.

The whole scene was staged by Southeast Missouri State University and the Cape Girardeau Community Traffic Safety Committee to officially kick off Alcohol Awareness Week at the university.

The docu-drama, as it is called, is designed to give people a first-hand look at the tragedy behind a fatal car crash, and the work at the scene by emergency service personnel after the call goes out.

"Today we are here to make a point about drinking and driving," said Police Chief Howard Boyd Jr., after the scene had been played out, the ambulances had left, and the firefighters were cleaning up. "The death you saw staged here today was a needless one.

"Every year we send one or two university students home in a box," he continued. "This kind of situation can be avoided by using common sense."

The police chief told the 200-some-odd students gathered around watching the scene unfold that the person who dies in a drunken driving vehicle accident actually suffers the least.

"If you don't think that these officers and these firemen don't go to bed at night and have nightmares about these kinds of things, you are sadly mistaken," Boyd said. "The pain generated by this kind of situation lasts for months; even years."

Monday's drama consisted of four college students who were "riding" in the crashed vehicle, one of whom was partially ejected through the windshield onto the hood.

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department cut a portion of the vehicle's roof away with the Jaws of Life rescue tool, for better access to the victims in the rear seat.

Cape County Private Ambulance personnel swarmed about the scene, largely ignoring the girl on the hood of the car, who had been "pronounced dead." She was eventually moved off the car, placed on a steel stretcher and concealed under a green blanket, at the feet of some onlooking university students.

At first, students joked and giggled about the activity going on around them. But as the scene wore on, their faces became more somber, their voices dropped; some turned away.

"It all looked very realistic," said Derek Arnzen, a health management student at the university, who stopped on his way to class to watch the show. "I rode with an ambulance crew for several months and this is how it really is.

"Fortunately, only one person died in this accident," he said. "I've seen situations where three or four of the five people in cars have died."

For Pat Patterson, a senior at the university, the docu-drama hit close to home.

"I lost three high school classmates to alcohol-related car crashes," he said. "If they had seen something like this, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

"When people witness a tragedy like this, I think they are more apt to think about drinking and driving, before they do it themselves," he continued.

Sharee Galnore, an organizer of the docu-drama and member of the Community Traffic Safety Committee, said the scene offers people the opportunity to see a lot of things they normally wouldn't be able to witness -- like the extrication of the rear passenger.

"When I watch something like this, I will start to wring my hands, even though I know it's not a real accident," she said. "The kids do a real good job of this -- I just hope we've made a difference in someone's life."