Simulation shows Nevada students impact of wrecks

Nevada High School students watch as local emergency responders, high school personnel and other students stage a fake drunk driving accident on the east side of the high school on May 10 in an effort to educate students. During the simulated accident depicting a crash and its aftermath to the junior and senior classes, students portrayed crash victims and survivors. Here Vernon County Sheriff's Deputy Pat McCarty, left, tries to console parent Bridget Norcross who has just learned that her daughter Taylor was "killed" during the fake accident while emergency personnel from the Nevada Fire Department and Vernon Colunty Ambulance District work to extricate another student from the car. Another student had simulated minor injuries. The driver also had minor injuries and was handled by the Nevada Police Department as if he were being arrested for driving while intoxicated. Students also saw a slide show of DWI crashes and listened to guest speakers.

Emergency personnel from the Vernon County Sheriff's Office and ambulance district and Nevada police and fire departments worked with Nevada High School administrators, students and community members to stage a drinking and driving crash so students could see its impact.

Two carefully planned scenarios, one for the seniors and one for the juniors, were carried out on the east side of the Nevada High School on May 10. In the first of the two dramas, senior students played the parts of vehicle occupants and were given various roles.

Kyle Schmidt was the driver of an already wrecked car positioned so it appeared to have slammed into a tree. Taylor Norcross played the part of a front seat passenger who was thrown fatally through the windshield. Trent Cannon and Casey Barker were back seat passengers and the rest of the senior class and some teachers watched from bleachers.

The actors began their parts when police sirens were heard approaching the scene. Schmidt exited the vehicle to find himself in the custody of Nevada Police Department Sgt. John Millard.

Millard administered a field sobriety test which Schmidt failed. He was taken from the scene handcuffed and riding in the back of Millard's cruiser.

Norcross, her face made gray with make-up and a hand mutilated with a prosthetic, lay face-down on the hood of the vehicle feigning death. The driver's side passenger made it out of the vehicle with minor injuries, but the other student had to be extricated and cared for by ambulance personnel.

While emergency personnel were working the scene, Norcross' mother, Bridget, arrived on the scene, becoming hysterical upon seeing her daughter. Vernon County Sheriff's Deputy Pat McCarty did his best to console her and keep her from the scene.

Vernon County Coroner David Ferry arrived and pronounced the acting student Norcross dead before covering her with a sheet and removing her from the scene while ambulance workers removed the final passenger. When the scene wrapped up, everyone assembled in the school auditorium to see a slide show and hear the day's speakers.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. James Wilde told students wrecks are not accidents. "They're crashes," Wilde said, and "they're violent." He informed students of reaction times and how they were affected by alcohol.

Wilde added wrecks can be avoided and urged students to wear seatbelts, "don't drink and get in that car.

"Please, please don't make me knock on your door and tell your parents" you've been killed in a wreck, Wilde said.

Associate Circuit Judge Charles Curless from Barton County said he had a niece killed by a drunk driver and told youngsters about the legal aspects of being the driver in an alcohol-related crash.

"You're going to lose your license -- and it's not easy to get back," Curless said.

He also informed them of the time, money and grief a DWI conviction could cost them and their family members.

Local resident Shelby Brandt told students how one night he showed up at a wreck a couple of miles from his home and found his son was involved. With his voice breaking, he said he held his son while they worked to free him. He told students of the agonizing decision he and his wife had to make when they had the 19-year-old boy taken off life support. "It could have been prevented. Had that other person chose not to drink and drive, my son might still be alive," Brandt said.

Participating students and parents talked about the effect the docudrama had on them.

Bridget Norcross said the thought of losing her daughter would make her crazy.

"I couldn't imagine putting her through that for real," Taylor Norcross said.

Nevada firefighter David May, who participated in the simulated incident, said a number of students commented on it even several days later.

"It did what it was supposed to do," May said.

This event was made possible with the cooperation of all the participating agencies and the school, said organizer Mike Eador, who has done several of the dramas in his 21 years as an emergency responder. It took more than a month of planning, but Eador, who has been a police officer and worked for VCAD for a long time, said the event "went together really well."