After the skit the students are whisked off stage to be made up with pale faces and bloodstain moulage (we don’t get intricate as the student audience can’t see more than that anyway). In the meantime Sergeant Quattrone or another Law Enforcement officer is on stage giving a lecture about the legal, social, academic and medical implications of DWI, about 20 minutes worth - which is long enough to do the moulage and get the actors out to the cars. We only have four victims at the crash site, two cars - two students in each. Any more would distract from the intended message. (we have found you need two previously wrecked cars nose to nose. One car doesn’t create a big enough ‘stage’ for the outside operations such as Hurst tool use etc.)

      The students are sent out to the crash site - usually a football field or track area where there are bleachers (we won’t do programs in parking lots without good seating arrangements). After a few words to reset the stage, the sound of a crash is played over our portable sound system and the incident begins. We play all dispatches and radio transmissions over the PA system to include Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, the request for a helicopter and coroner.   Law Enforcement and EMS work the scene somewhat theatrically - but similar to real scene functions. 

      The ‘dead’ girl is removed from the vehicle early on, covered with a bloodstained sheet and placed between the scene and the audience, so that they must look over her body to see everything else. Once EMS leaves with a serious victim, law enforcement does field sobriety tests, arrests and leaves with our drunk driver and the helicopter leaves for a trauma center with our critical victim, all attention is now placed on the remaining victim. The coroner has arrived by now and declared our victim dead.  The hearse drives in slowly and the girl is placed into an actual body bag, onto the gurney and into the hearse and driven offsite. During this removal process we play a contemporary, mournful, soulful song. For three years we used Sara MacLachlan’s “I Will Remember You”, but it is so over played now a days that we have switched to her song “Angel”. When the hearse has driven off into the sunset so to speak, Ron the narrator will make a few comments about how this call has affected the responders and that now the coroner must notify this person’s family that their baby girl has died. 

      The students now return to the aud or gym for the remainder of the program, the core of which consists of: 1) we will bring in a local Judge who holds a short 5min fake arraignment of our driver - who is marched in, in handcuffs by the deputy or police officer.  2) A news broadcast over the PA of the accident  (as if it were noon news the next day) done by a local radio personality that the kids would know. It describes the accident scene and that their fellow student died, the charges placed on the driver, that he is in County jail in lieu of bail, and that friends of the deceased will be received at the funeral home on Monday.   3) We play an obituary, prerecorded by our ‘dead’ girl, which is as if she is speaking to us ‘from beyond’.  It describes her regrets at not being able to fall in love, go to college, say good-bye to mom, etc. Additionally, at some programs. We have also done fake mini funerals, complete with a closed coffin on stage. Sometimes we have our ‘dead’ girl on the side of the stage, dressed in a choir robe, ‘hit’ with a blue light while her obit is playing. It all depends on how you can interact with the various services within your community as to what options you choose to use.

      After these options, the Sergeant or officer will get back on stage and give a short “that’s as real as we can make it” talk. He then reintroduces the Coroner who describes the death notification process and brings our 4 key characters back on stage so that the audience psychologically sees they didn’t die.

      The school administration then ends the program with thank yous for the community participants. We also require that the school have their counselors and or school psychologist available afterwards to talk with students.

      This program is very emotional, especially with the music thrown in at various parts - but evoking emotion creates strong memories, and that’s our goal.  Students see worse than this on TV everyday, but this is different as it involves their friends.  We don’t lecture AT students. We present information and hopefully they’ll make good choices. We do ask the schools to hand out evaluation forms to representative students and faculty the following day.

If you would like more information, or if you would like to schedule a Mock DUI presentation for your school or institution, please contact Ron Hasson at 664-7353 Extension 214.