TRAFFIC PROGRAM SHOWS YOUTH CONSEQUENCES OF UNSAFE DRIVING

At the close of 1993, the Cape Girardeau Police Department reported it had worked more traffic accidents that year than any year prior.

Police also found that the vast majority of people involved in accidents were between the ages of 16 and 25.

It is for reasons such as this that a group of critical care nurses began a program at St. Francis Medical Center nearly four years ago; it is designed to impress upon young traffic offenders the dire consequences of unsafe driving.

On the first Friday of every month, Chris Byrd, a clinical nurse specialist at St. Francis Medical Center, spends the day with up to seven young people sentenced to the traffic offender program by a municipal or associate circuit judge.

Offenders guilty of driving while intoxicated, excessive speeding or careless and imprudent driving may be sentenced to the program at the discretion of the judge.

"The purpose of this program is to make young people aware of what could happen in a serious car accident," said Byrd. "We try to take an educational approach to the day; not a punitive approach."

"We don't show them crash-and-bash movies -- this is the real thing," she said.

The major focus of the day's teachings is on head and spinal cord injuries, which are suffered most often by people between the ages of 16 and 25.

In the morning when the offenders get to the hospital, they are given an overview of the one-day program, a preliminary questionnaire, traffic accident statistics and injury information and are shown a video.

Then the curriculum departs from other traffic offender programs.

A social worker at the hospital comes in to the orientation room and talks about the impact a serious accident has on the victim and family, socially and economically. The social worker also reviews terminology that will be used the rest of the day, referring to patients and situations the traffic offenders will encounter.

At the close of the social worker's remarks, the people in the class draw cards out of a box, setting forth a traffic accident scenario, outlining the injuries that person has suffered and assigning him or her a disability for the rest of the day.

"The disabilities assigned to the people in the class are ones that could easily result from injuries in a car accident," said Byrd. "One student won't be able to talk for the rest of the day because he or she suffered brain damage in an accident; another won't be able to use his right arm; still another will be paralyzed from the waist down and will have to move about in a wheelchair for the rest of the day.

"We are trying to get across the point that this could happen to them," said Byrd. "So many young people have this sense of immortality about them; they feel that they could never be hurt or killed in an accident. But in reality, it only takes a split second for a person to be bound in a wheelchair for the rest of his or her life."

The now disabled traffic offenders are led off for a tour of the Air Evac Lifeteam helicopter/air ambulance, and given a lecture by the on-duty flight nurse.

"The flight nurse not only talks about the kinds of situations the air ambulance is used for, but will also give examples of some of the accident scenes they have been called to," said Byrd. "They can get pretty graphic in their descriptions."

The group then heads off to the emergency room and trauma center for a tour of the facilities. Emergency room nurses will show the group the kinds of instruments which must be used on people brought in to be treated for trauma injuries after accidents.

"It's kind of a `this is what would happen to you if...' lecture," said Byrd. "Some of the young people tend to turn a little green."

Then they are off to the intensive care unit, where the young people for the first time see actual patients in the hospital.

"We protect the confidentiality of the patients, but we also give the people in the program a general idea of what happened to these people to get them where they are," Byrd said. "We also describe the medical equipment used to sustain the intensive care patients -- like chest and feeding tubes, catheters and life-support equipment."

When the group goes to lunch, each person must go through the cafeteria line with his or her disability.

"If a person cannot talk, he or she has to point to what they want," said Byrd. "The person who is in the wheelchair has to balance the cafeteria tray so it does not fall.

"The people who have been through the program say that they feel like they have a disability most when they are in the cafeteria," she continued. "They say they feel like people are staring at them."

After lunch and for the remainder of the day, the group is shown what can result of serious injuries, including physical and speech therapy, paralysis or permanent brain damage.

"If at all possible, we try and take them to a patient's room and explain what has happened to that person," said Byrd. "We first get the patient's or the family's permission to have the group come in. We have found that families are usually willing to allow other people to come in and view their relative, if it will help avoid the same thing from happening to someone else."

Byrd said that more than once hospital staff have had to prop a chair under members of the group to prevent them from falling to the ground when they feel faint.

"This is a very matter-of-fact kind of program," she said. "We are not sugar-coating anything. We want these young people to see what happens as a result of a car accident."

Throughout the day, seat belt usage and sober driving is stressed, Byrd said.

"Most people will argue that wearing their seat belt is their choice -- in Missouri it's the law -- and I can't make them do it," said Byrd. "But perhaps I can give them information which will help them make a better choice in the future.

"By the end of the day, we really do see a difference in the people who have gone through the program," said Byrd. "Most of them don't want to be there in the morning, but by the time the day is over, the group is very subdued; very quiet."

People who go through the traffic offender's program are required to pay a small fee to the courts and write a follow-up essay to the judge about their day at the hospital.

"Young people tend to be risk-takers, and don't always consider the consequences of their actions," said Byrd. "After completing the program, we hope that these people think back to what they have seen and learned, to possibly prevent it from happening to them."