Mock crash at Chamois R-1 serves as a somber reminder about drinking and driving

By Neal A. Johnson
Posted 4/14/21

A call no parent wants to receive is one notifying them of a tragic accident, particularly one involving the death of a teen. That’s exactly what played out Friday at Chamois Riverside Park as the …

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Mock crash at Chamois R-1 serves as a somber reminder about drinking and driving

Posted

A call no parent wants to receive is one notifying them of a tragic accident, particularly one involving the death of a teen. That’s exactly what played out Friday at Chamois Riverside Park as the R-1 Student Council utilized a Central District Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety grant through the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to enact a mock crash involving six students in a presentation for students in grades 9-12.
Chamois R-1 Counselor Meghan Birmingham said she believed it was important to present this mock crash. “We did it all the time when I was in high school and I wanted the kids to see this,” she said. “It’s important they understand what can happen if they drink and drive or drive while texting.”
Setting up the event was a joint effort as Maggie Roberts with MRPC and OAD Administrator Josh Krull planned every detail.
“We had a meeting and I had to pick the kids and I called the funeral home and the fire department, and Josh took care of talking to the sheriff and coroner,” said Birmingham. “Maggie and a friend of hers handled the make-up. It wasn’t hard to put together but it took time to coordinate.”
She believes this will have a long-lasting impact on students. “Looking at the kids and watching their reactions, I saw several students in tears,” Birmingham said. “They seemed to understand that this could really happen to their friends, their girlfriends or boyfriends, their brothers or sisters, and I think this will show you can’t just get on the road and do whatever you want. There are consequences. This is a good reminder that these things happen and kids have a tendency to think they’re invincible and won’t happen to them. It happens more often than you think.”
Birmingham presented her idea to Principal Jeremy McKague, who was very supportive.
“We did it several years ago and a few kids asked when we were going to do it again,” said McKague. “It’s pretty sensitive for some of them and I’m sure this type of thing has affected them at some point.”
McKague added that the training benefits everyone. “We’re pretty small here in Osage County and it’s a good possibility that emergency responders are going to know someone in a crash,” he said. “It’s a more unique situation than what you’d find in a larger, metropolitan area.”
He noted that seeing the fire department and medical crews in action is a reminder of how vulnerable an emergency can be. “We’re spread out here and there are limited resources but it’s nice to know that responders can show up and stabilize a situation,” said McKague. “We can’t do it alone.”
Kira Halbert rushed to the scene in which her children, Ethan, 18, and Eevie, 16, were injured, though she did not know to what extent.
Fighting to reach her children, Halbert was restrained by Cpt. Travis Shaffer and Deputy Tommy Kullberg of the Osage County Sheriff’s Office, who gently but firmly kept her from seeing that her daughter, Eevie, had been killed in the crash, while Ethan had suffered a broken arm.
“This was an emotional experience for everyone involved,” said Shaffer. “It’s never easy and having to restrain someone at a scene is especially difficult. All we can do is provide as much comfort as possible while keeping everyone safe and allowing emergency personnel to do their jobs.”
Shaffer added that he and the sheriff’s office are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the mock vehicle accident. “We recognize that alcohol and distracted driving are two of the leading factors in collisions involving that specific age group and we want to do whatever we can to mitigate that,” he said. “If this exercise impacts one student, saves one life, prevents one fatality, then we’ve succeeded in our efforts here.”
Though this was entirely fictional, the scene brought evoked memories for Halbert.
“This was very real because when I was a freshman in high school, I had two friends that were involved in an accident on Gasconade Hill,” she said. “One friend went out the front window and the other went out the back window. They both died, and it was like reliving that all over again. It was very emotional.”
As the scene opened, several Chamois students were the first to arrive. They found Eevie lying on the hood of one car, half of her body still inside. Another victim, Caine Schaben, sat on the ground with a broken leg, and Ethan, was trapped in the back seat.
Ejected from the vehicle were two more patients. RJ Hagenhoff was motionless, killed in the crash, while Veronica Slack laid a few feet away in serious condition.
This crash was the result of drunk driving, and Mason Lamb, who portrayed the drunk teen, was visibly shaken as his classmates demanded answers. His girlfriend, Rebecca Tharp, slapped him and then left him to ponder his destructive decision.
“I would have been really angry in real life if my boyfriend had just killed two people,” she said. “In a real situation, I probably would have done even more to him.”
In Friday’s exercise, however, she let the anger go in favor of seeing to her friend. “I went to Veronica first,” Tharp said. “We’ve become really close, and even though it wasn’t real, it felt real, and it hurt to see her like that. Drinking and driving is horrible and this showed that.”
Another of the students first to arrive was Ariel Owens, who had never seen this kind of thing before but said there have been bad situations at Chamois. “It was tough to just stand there and watch,” she said. “When we first came down it was difficult because we didn’t know fully what to expect. It was really surprising to see one of my classmates, who I’ve grown close to, lying half out of the window, and others lying on the ground. It was hard.”
Kaylee Sieg, who was selected this year as an Osage County Anti-Drug Community Action Team (OC-ADCAT) Student of the Month, also served as a classmate who found her friends in bad shape.
“It was crazy, and it seemed very realistic even though I knew it wasn’t real,” she said. “It shook me a little bit because I’ve been in a crash before so it was hard watching it. This will stick with me for a while.”
Madeline Gerloff checked for a pulse as she dialed 911, begging for her friends to be okay.
In short order, deputies and fire department personnel arrived on the scene.
“It went very well,” said Chamois Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Sean Hackmann, who led rescue operations during the drill. “Everyone did a great job. This would have been more chaotic if it was real but it was still pretty chaotic. We got everyone where they needed to go. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
While Hackmann handled the extrication and stabilization of patients in one car, EMT Angela Hagenhoff led the efforts with patients that had been ejected from vehicles, one of whom was her son, RJ.
“As a parent of one of the deceased and a first responder, it was hard to see your child dead and knowing that your job at that point is to save those you can,” said Hagenhoff. “Being a first responder in a small community, it is inevitable that at some point you will be called to help family and friends at the worst times of their life, but you have to focus on your training and do the best you can at the time. Hopefully this will stick with (students) in the future.”
Overall, Hagenhoff believes the exercise went well. “It gave us an opportunity to show the kids what an accident could be like and I believe this is a good experience for the students,” she added. “I just hope that they understand that this does not just pertain to drinking and driving. This type of accident could happen for many reasons, like texting and driving, speeding or just distractive driving. We all know we what it’s like being a teenager and driving with the friends. Sometimes we forget to truly pay attention to the road.”
Osage Ambulance District crews arrived on the scene and took over the medical duties.
“These docudrama events are extremely important to us and if we can make one student think twice before drinking and driving, riding with a drunk driver, or texting and driving, it was all worth it,” said OAD Administrator Josh Krull. “We make these events as real as possible to show the consequences of poor decision-making. It’s so easy to just live in the moment and maybe not think a decision all the way through. We want students to remember this event and say, ‘I don’t want to be that injured person in a car wreck, the fatality, or the person being arrested.’”
As emergency personnel worked together to stabilize the wounded, Mason Lamb was dealing with a life-changing event. He was given — and failed — a field sobriety test by Cpt. Shaffer, who then cuffed him and placed him in the back of the cruiser not far from the scene of the accident.
“It was tough to sit there and watch as they worked on my friends,” said Lamb. “It’s a situation I don’t ever want to be in for real.”
In addition to Hagenhoff, Hackmann noted there are four Emergency Medical Responders (EMRs) among fire department personnel. “For those who aren’t trained as EMRs, we give them direction and tasks to help with other things,” said Hackmann. “There’s a lot more to the scene than just medical.”
Hackmann explained that the safety of everyone at the scene is paramount, from witnesses and bystanders to other emergency personnel. “Fire trucks and ambulances arriving on the scene are a potential hazard, so we have to stay focused or people get hurt,” said Hackmann. “The scene itself can be a hazard with sharp objects, glass, and even things like border tape, which people can trip over. That tape is here to protect those who are working the scene. If you don’t protect those who are there to help, you have another patient, so you want to focus on scene safety first and help those who can be helped.”
Chamois firefighters Scott Mertz and Kody Hackmann were responsible for hooking up the extrication equipment and helping with patients. EMR Zach Strope also assisted with extrication duties.
In Friday’s scenario, the two-car crash involved two deceased students and three who were seriously injured.
In addition to two OAD ambulances, a medical helicopter from Phelps Air responded to the scene.
In the scenario, a critically injured patient, Slack, was to be flown to the trauma center by helicopter but just before being loaded, she went into cardiac arrest and required CPR.
“Helicopters will not typically transport someone in cardiac arrest because of the limited space so this patient was quickly moved to an ambulance for continued treatment,” Krull explained.
CFPD Second Assistant Chief Mike Hagenhoff handled the landing zone (LZ) for the helicopter, while Morrison Volunteer Fire Department provided mutual aid with the LZ and on-scene help from Torrey Slack and Chief Rick Cramer.
Slack, along with Schaben and Ethan Halbert, were taken from the scene via ambulance.
“Many of our EMTs and paramedics have children of their own and these types of accidents are some of the most difficult to respond to,” Krull added.
Deputy Coroner Bob Goodenough had the unenvious duty of declaring the two teens dead at the scene.
“It’s one of those jobs you love to hate,” he said. “It will never be a pleasure to roll up on a scene like that. Seeing something like that is difficult. I think the training went very well. Everyone did exactly what they would have done in a real situation. It was very realistic though I’ve not seen a crash like this yet as deputy coroner. I saw a couple of those as a reserve police officer years ago and it wasn’t pleasant but if we get through to just one kid, it’s a worthwhile exercise.”
That was followed by a respectful removal of the bodies by Morton Chapel employees Stanley Strope and Nathan Veltrop.
Morton Chapel owner Mike Thomas, who served for several years as deputy coroner, said this experience is one that will change the lives of everyone in the crash. “Over my years of being in the funeral business and my years as deputy coroner, I have seen how devastating driving drunk can be to the families of those involved,” he said. “A decision made to drive after drinking can have a lifetime of consequences for you and others.”
For Hackmann, the hope is that the reality of the situation sunk in with the students.
“Seeing someone go off in a hearse is final, and that stays with kids for a long time,” said Hackmann. “It gets real in a hurry.”
Halbert said she believes the message will resonate with students for a long time.
“To have my daughter be one of the fatalities probably hit closer to home for some of her classmates,” she said. “It’s a small community and anyone in this situation would be devastated.”
Ethan and Eevie volunteered to portray victims, and Kira was willing to play the distraught mother in what was to her, a very real situation.
Despite efforts by Deputy Kullberg and Detention Sgt. Amber Haslag to keep the scene clear, students continued to run to their friends even after emergency responders were trying to help.
“I remember how we all ran up that hill to get to our friends,” Kira said. “You aren’t thinking about anything other than getting to them and touching them to make sure they’re all right. It all kinds of floods you once in a while.”
Destiny Bledsoe, who took photos of the scene, said her perspective was perhaps different than what others experienced.
“I was following the action with my camera, so I was looking for the bigger stuff but at one point, I did feel myself getting choked up,” she said. “I had to remind myself it wasn’t real but it still hit me that it could be real.”
Bledsoe said the mock crash should help younger students understand the seriousness of drinking and driving. “Seeing it brings it all into perspective,” she added. “Seeing all the kids you know really hit home.”
Nate Nolte called the scene surreal. “This was as close as it can get to a real-life situation,” he said. “I’ve heard about situations like this but I’ve never seen it. I think this will make a difference, especially for the younger kids. I think it will scare them a little more than the older kids.”
Hackmann said the mock crash is about as real as it can get. “The goal is to impress on these kids how dangerous drinking and driving can be,” he added. “Seeing the car cut open and the sounds and sights, including the blood on their friends, makes a huge impact.”