Simulation drives home drunken-driving consequences

By Editor | October 14, 2016 |

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A high school student portraying a drunken-driving accident victim lies on the ground outside a smoking sedan during Friday morning’s “docudrama” at Maryville High School. This year’s fatal-accident simulation was watched by more than 350 teenagers from 11 area school districts.

Here are some photos from Friday’s annual impaired/distracted-driving simulation staged at Maryville High School.

More than 350 area sophomores attended this year’s event, which for the first time utilized MHS’ new Schneider Center for the Performing Arts.

Gray skies and misting rain added to the somber atmosphere of a re-enacted tragedy that was based on a scenario in which a drunken teen driver smashed head-on into another young motorist using a cell phone behind the wheel.

The “accident” took place on a rural gravel road, which meant that police officers and rescue personnel failed to reach the scene until after two of the victims had died.

While the blood was fake and the bones were plastic, disturbing images presented during the event caused several in the audience to shed real tears.

Check out Monday’s Daily Forum for a full report on this yearly effort to prevent teen-driver tragedies.

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Maryville Public Safety officer Nathan Osborn, left, administers a field sobriety test to Andrew Freemyer, a Northeast Nodaway senior who portrayed a drunken driver with minor injuries during Friday’s fatal accident docudrama at Maryville High School. Osborn ended the test by saying, “At this time I need you to place your hands behind your back because you are under arrest.”

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Nodaway County first responders wheel a drunken-driving docudrama re-enactor into a waiting ambulance. This year’s simulation involved a scenario in which an inebriated teen driver struck the car of another young motorist who was using a cell phone while rolling down a rural gravel road.

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Family members who have lost loved ones in fatal accidents display mementoes of those killed to more than 350 high school sophomores entering the Schneider Center for the Performing Arts during Friday’s Maryville High School impaired- and distracted-driving docudrama.

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Firefighters somberly enclose a student re-enactor inside a black body bag during Friday’s drunken-driving simulation at Maryville High School.

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A paramedic, a sheriff’s deputy, and firefighters demonstrate techniques used to aid wreck victims during Friday’s fatal accident simulation at Maryville High School. The annual docudrama recreated a response to a collision caused by a drunken driver and a teen motorist using a cell phone while behind the wheel.

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A Nodaway County Ambulance District paramedic carries a trauma bag while striding toward a victim with a compound leg fracture during Friday’s impaired/distracted-driving docudrama at Maryville High School. According to the scenario devised prior to the re-enactment, the teenage passenger pictured on the ground did not survive.

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The blood was fake and the bones were plastic pipe, but Friday’s fatal accident simulation at Maryville High School looked real enough to bring tears to the eyes of a number of students and adults watching from a pair of portable bleachers. About 600 people attended the simulation, including more than 350 high school sophomores from 11 area school districts.

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Northwest Missouri State University junior Abby Bobbett of Fremont, Nebraska, applies makeup simulating a head injury to Marissa Smithson, a senior at Stanberry High School, early Friday prior to this year’s impaired-driving docudrama hosted by Maryville High School and attended by teenagers from across the Maryville region.

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South Nodaway senior Sydney Harlan shows off her compound arm fracture while getting made up early Friday for the Maryville High School drunken-driving docudrama. Harlan was also outfitted with a fake-blood pump that simulated a severed artery.

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Northeast Nodaway senior Andrew Freemyer — the drunken driver in Friday’s MHS docudrama — gets a nasty looking gash applied to his forehead by event volunteer Richard Leach-Steffens. Freemyer survived the fatal “collision” with only minor injuries before being led from the scene in handcuffs by a Maryville Public Safety officer.

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Area teenagers watch a video depicting a fatal collision following Friday’s fatal accident docudrama at Maryville High School. Sophomores from all seven Nodaway County public school districts attended the event in addition to young people from Bedford, Iowa; Albany; Stanberry; and Worth County.