Local agencies collaborate with YHS and demonstrate dangers of distracted, drunk driving

Several local first responder agencies and businesses in the area used the beautiful weather on Thursday, May 21, as an opportunity to teach and remind Yelm High School students just how dangerous distracted and impaired driving can be.

This lesson and reminder came in the form of a mock head-on collision demonstration, which was staged on Yelm High School’s football track. Students at the school filled up the entirety of the field’s stadium in attendance for the collision demonstration.

Kameron Watts, Washington State Patrol District 1 Public Information Officer, narrated the demonstration and showed students how surreal every second is after a head-on collision takes place.

During his narration, he covered real-life occurrences like the 911 dispatch call and the arrival of a nearby police agency — which in this instance was Yelm Police Department. Additionally, the demonstration included a field sobriety test on the causing driver in the incident.

Southeast Thurston Fire Authority arrived at the scene and used the jaws of life to remove the roof from a Toyota Corolla and rescue a volunteer victim that was trapped inside of his car. Additionally, a second volunteer victim was pronounced dead at the scene upon arrival of SETFA. This led to the most surreal moment of the demonstration when the deceased victim’s mother arrived and cried out as she questioned what happened to the police officer.

Once the scene was cleared, Bill’s Towing arrived and, like it has done before in real head-on collisions, towed away the vehicles involved in the crash.

Following Watts’ comments, Rob Carlson, Yelm Police Chief, took the microphone and provided students with statistics related to distracted and impaired driving. He was grateful for the opportunity to put on the mock scene to demonstrate the impacts of driving impaired or distracted.

“Every 39 minutes, there’s someone that’s involved in a fatal accident where they’re either impaired or distracted. That’s 37 people each day. That’s a big deal,” Carlson told the Nisqually Valley News prior to the demonstration on Thursday, May 21. “When it comes to teen driving, when there’s distractions involved and there’s an accident, 58% of those are due to texting. We can literally cut that statistic in half just by putting our phones down. I don’t think that’s just true for teens. It’s probably true for everyone.”

Carlson was grateful to see such strong collaboration efforts from all of the local agencies in attendance, which included: T-Comm, Thurston County Coroner’s Office, Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, SETFA, Yelm Police Department, Washington State Patrol and volunteers working the scene of the mock crash.

“(The collaboration) shows how much of an importance we all feel it is to get that message out,” he said. “Like I said, every day, people are getting killed in these accidents. We care about the communities and we want to put out what we can to help them understand what they can do and improve to live a long and healthy life. I think it shows that these folks, whether it’s businesses like Bill’s Towing, T-Comm, our dispatch, or the law enforcement agencies surrounding us. It’s important and we all feel it’s important for students to get this message.”

Additionally, Carlson said he wanted this conversation on the dangers of driving distracted and impaired to take place with students while they’re young. He’s hopeful the demonstration would stick with YHS students and make them think twice before picking up their cell phones, or worse, while driving.

“Hopefully this is something that sticks in their minds and helps them make better decisions and remain responsible,” Carlson said. “Driving is not a right. It’s a privilege. In order to maintain that, we’ve got to remain responsible.”

The chief added that every student at YHS has a bright future ahead of themselves, and that the agencies attending the demonstration want to keep them on the right path and provide them with every tool they need in order to be successful in life.

Curtis Cleveringa, YHS Principal, also appreciated the partnerships with each of the local first responding agencies in attendance of the mock demonstration.

“It’s always important to remind kids of the responsibility they carry when they get behind the wheel. We take it for granted,” Cleveringa said. “Your life and loved one’s lives could change in a second with a bad choice. It’s just a good reminder. Spring time is a good time to do it. We have graduation just around the corner. We just got through prom safely. It’s always a big stress for high school principals to worry about those things.”

Cleveringa added that YPD reached out to the high school weeks ago and asked if there was any way that this demonstration could take place before the end of the school year. After several weeks of planning — which the principal credited to the “great staff” at YHS — the mock collision was finally able to take place.

“I was just mentioning it with our Superintendent, Mr. (Chris) Woods, that we would love to do this again on a regular basis, just to pass on that message of the responsibility kids take when they get behind the wheel,” Cleveringa said. “We appreciate all of our kids and staff for making this happen. It took a lot of people to pull this off, and we appreciate everyone’s effort.”