Mock Car Crash at Eastlake High School Aims to Send Message to Teen Drivers

It’s late at night and a group of teens is driving home from a basketball game in a SUV. They’re talking, laughing and having a good time. Coming toward them in a sedan is a second group of teens. This second group has been at party where they’ve also been talking, laughing and having a good time.

They’ve also been drinking. The teen driving the sedan isn’t paying as much attention as he should and the alcohol in his body has left him impaired. His reflexes are slow. His thoughts are muddled.

The two vehicles collide at an intersection. Tires squeal, metal crumples and glass shatters. One of the teens in the SUV goes through the windshield and dies on the hood. Another teen is seriously injured and will never be the same again. Three of the teens in the sedan will end up being arrested, their lives ruined almost as badly from that point on.

Fortunately, for everyone involved this wasn’t a real accident, though accidents like this do really happen every day, a point Eastside Fire & Rescue and the hoped to get across to students at  on Tuesday through a mock DUI car crash.

The mock eventbrought Eastlake students face to face with what can happen when a teen driver makes a bad decision and chooses to drink and drive. The simulation was made even more real by the inclusion of student participants, their faces familiar to many of their classmates at Eastlake High.

“We’re hoping that they store this away in their memory,” Yvette Cook, a counselor at Eastlake, said.

Eastside Fire & Rescue routinely stages similar mock car crashes at local schools, all aimed at teaching teens the many dangers and consequences of distracted and careless driving.

“Having the visual and being able to talk about it afterwards sends a very vivid and lasting memory,” said firefighter Pete Wilson.

Eastlake’s students stood and watched as police arrived on the scene and tried to make sense of the situation, as aid crews rushed in and struggled to free the injured from the mangled SUV. They watched silently as kids their own age were handcuffed and taken into custody, watched as a lifeless teen was covered up by a plain white sheet. 

The visual had an effect on the assembled students.

“It puts things in perspective,” said Clay Monahan, a 17-year-old-junior.

Seeing the accident play out in front of them, and seeing their friendsinvolved, was particularly effective.

“At most we just see pictures of people and stuff and after a while we kind of get immune,” said Jared Frank, another 17-year-old junior.

First responders, such as Wilson, hope that kids get the message that doing anything careless while driving, be it drinking or talking on the phone or paying too much attention to passengers, can have deadly, life-changing consequences.

“Hopefully when they have the opportunity to make an adult decision, this event helps the young adult make an adult decision,” Wilson said.

Sammamish Police Department’s Sgt. Jessica Sullivan believes that the message is getting through.

“I think it makes them think twice, and that’s always a good thing,” she said.