COLONY — With Prom Night a week away, and Graduation Day not long after, Crest High School students, ready or not, will make some hefty choices in the coming days.
But in order to make the big ones — college, work, etc. — they need to make sure the little decisions don’t become big problems along the way.
Particularly when they get behind the wheel.
Colony City Marshal Angela Gardner, working in league with the Crest National Honor Society and several Anderson County first responders, put forth a mock drill to re-enact a fatal drinking-related traffic accident.
The scenario had three senior girls — each of whom had apparently been drinking alcohol — found by a passerby after their vehicle had crashed into a tree.
One of the three, portrayed by Peyton Schmidt, was ejected from the vehicle, dying at the scene. A second, played by Kinley Edgerton, had to be extricated from the pickup by using a Jaws of Life apparatus. She was then loaded into an ambulance.
The uninjured driver, Allison Weatherman, had her own drama to deal with, going through a series of tests administered to motorists suspected of impaired driving.
Weatherman “failed” the test, and was placed in handcuffs and taken to a waiting sheriff’s vehicle.
All was done in front of dozens of their fellow schoolmates.
The exercise wasn’t to be melodramatic, Gardner stressed beforehand.
“It’s meant to show you what can happen when bad choices are made, and how many people work together to try to save a life.
“You have a learning experience, because the choices you make after today, you make a difference in your life and others,” she said.
The drill also offers the emergency workers another opportunity to hone their skills in a low-stakes situation. Crews from Anderson County Fire and Rescue and Anderson County Sheriff’s Department assisted as well.
Even Anderson County Coroner Don Nungessar was a part of the exercise.
THE DRILL was suggested by NHS members, eager to see their schoolmates exercise good decision-making skills as spring arrives, Edgerton said. Each of the three re-enactors are National Honor Society members.
“I remember them doing this when we were freshmen,” Edgerton said. “Everybody got on board pretty quickly.”
