Impacts of distracted driving showcased at high school

    CARIBOU, Maine — Distracted driving isn’t just talking on the phone, and all of it’s dangerous.
Finagling with the top of a water bottle, fishing through a playlist, putting on lipstick or eating lunch — not to mention texting — lead to driving distracted, and its inherent dangers.
Last month, students of the Caribou High School had a chance to witness a mock instance of what happens when a distracted driver meets a drunk driver, and organizers are hoping that image stays with students for a long time.
Ann King, RN/CIC/CEMPT with Cary Medical Center, helped arrange the accident scene involving two real cars that were in a low speed accident due to distracted driving.
“Drinking and driving has decreased somewhat, which is great, but distracted driving … that’s a problem,” King said. “You don’t even have to be going that fast.”
Caribou’s Fire and Police Departments responded to the fake accident scene — but they didn’t phone in their actions or put on a show for the kids. Instead, they treated the incident like real life.
Students watched as one classmate was given a sobriety test, while another student, who died in the fake accident, was placed to the side of the scene, covered with a white sheet, and left alone while the emergency officials worked with the jaws of life to extract the other passengers from the two-car mock collision.
“A lot of people asked ‘well, you’re taking a long time’ … well it takes time,” Caribou Fire Chief Scott Susi commented. “People don’t just miraculously come out (of a mangled car).”
King noticed that the tone of the crowd changed as the exercise went on.
“At first, they thought it was fun, they assumed it was drinking and driving; I think when they saw us playing out one student getting arrested and we took the first victim out of the car, dead, it maybe got a little bit uncomfortable and a little bit quiet,” she said, explaining that she worked with school officials beforehand to make sure special considerations were made for students who’ve lost loved ones due to accidents.
But the message from the day was not exclusive to students.
“We’re just as guilty with texting,” she said of adults. “Women are still putting on mascara behind the wheel, and people are eating, and we’re on the phone — life is so busy … but these are preventable accidents.”
The preventable accidents have serious consequences. When King was putting makeup on one of the victims pre-accident, one student questioned how life-like their fake trauma wounds were. She responded that she was just giving them injuries that she’s seen from this kind of crash.
“Some accidents are true accidents; this is truly an avoidable event,” King added. “I’ve been a flight nurse since 1988. If I have to fly someone out because of something avoidable, it breaks my heart.”
“There are so many things we don’t have control over, and we do have control over this,” she added.
Susi and King agreed that the students asked a lot of great questions, and they’re hoping the event was memorable enough for students to pay attention while they’re driving.
“Texting, eating, putting on makeup, trying to do your homework — distracted means you’re not driving,” Chief Susi said, urging the greater community to do without distracted driving. “Get there safely, then take care of what you need to.”
Susi said that driving carefully will be extra important next month, when the area is visited by thousands of visitors for the World Acadian Congress who are looking for unfamiliar address numbers and streets.