Mock accident shows Mars students horrors of driving under the influence
ADAMS TWP — Mars Area High School’s Mock Accident Assembly left one “dead” and two “injured” Wednesday, April 12, in a dramatization of the results of driving under the influence.
Adams Township police officer Mike Bordt addressed a crowd of Mars juniors and seniors behind the simulated wreckage of a head-on collision.
“We have a very real scene here for you today,” Bordt said. “As we get into the 2023 prom and graduation season, watch what’s going on here and just realize that this could be the effects of what impaired driving can do.”
Responding were Butler County 911, Adams police, Adams Area Volunteer Fire District, Callery Borough Volunteer Fire Company, Middlesex Township Volunteer Fire Company, Quality EMS and the Allegheny Health Network Wexford Pre-Hospital Response.
Conrad Pfeifer, executive director and chief of Quality EMS, narrated the scene as officer Chris Kopas assessed two students in a gray car and two students in a black car.
“The officers’ first job, they’re going to check and make sure if there’s injuries or no injuries, and if there are, what the extent of those are,” Pfeifer said. “The second officer on the scene will start assessing safety, and as the other responders arrive, (firefighters) and EMS, they will start to block the road.”
While crews blocked the black car’s wheels in preparation to extract the injured driver, portrayed by senior Emma Pazer, officers performed field sobriety tests on the gray car’s driver, portrayed by senior Nathalie Lopez.
The black car’s passenger, portrayed by senior Emma Liannan, had been thrown through the window in the “crash,” and was pronounced “dead” at the scene.
The Butler County coroner arrived at the scene, placing the victim in a body bag for transport.
Senior Lia Mironianski, acting as the gray car’s passenger, was “injured” and transported to a local hospital while the gray car’s driver was placed under arrest.
“There is reason to believe that the driver is intoxicated, and she is being taken into custody,” Bordt said.
While crews removed the black car’s door to extract Emma, LifeFlight landed in the school’s parking lot to transport her to a nearby trauma center.
“The other thing I’d like everybody to realize is: look at the amount of assets and equipment and people that it took when one person made a choice,” Pfeifer said. “And it was a bad choice.”
As crews began to clear the scene, Pfeifer reiterated the effect this choice has on both the living and dead.
“That’s going to change the driver’s life, who has a homicide by vehicle DUI, and all the responders that came,” he said.
Megan Lenz, Mars Area School Board member and supervisor for AHN Prehospital Operations, said the mock accident assembly started as a senior project over 15 years ago.
Brandon Makin, a firefighter and EMT with the Adams Area Fire District, organized the bi-annual event every year since 2013. With the onset of the pandemic in 2019, Makin said he had not been able to present the assembly.
In addition to the seven “responding” departments, Wednesday’s demonstration included special effects makeup by Kris Grady, of Shriek EFX Studios, and AHN Wexford’s LifeFlight crew.
The wrecked vehicles were donated by Classic Automotive.
Lenz said the experience was “invaluable” to students.
“We do these all over the place, and this is the only one I’ve ever seen where they actually put the student in a body bag,” Lenz said. “I mean, that’s pretty intense.”
She said the organizers would continue to do the event every two years moving forward.
After the demonstration, students were taken inside the high school auditorium for a presentation on the effects of driving under the influence.
“Think about this as we get into the prom and graduation season as well as anytime,” Bordt said. “This is a very realistic scene. It’s something we’ve all seen here, and it’s something to be thinking about.”
