From staff reports
Friday morning, April 5, as Whale Branch Early College High School prom-goers looked on, local emergency crews responded to a realistic crash scene set up at the rear of the school involving injuries, a fatality, and an “impaired” driver.
Students watched on as responders treated the injured and rescued an occupant that was trapped inside a vehicle, while an “impaired” driver was administered a field sobriety test and placed under arrest for driving under the influence.
With prom season here, responders emphasize that this presentation was extremely important for these young drivers to experience.
“People who have had to live with the consequences of a bad decision are less likely to repeat it, especially when that decision ends in the death of another. By putting on such a realistic demonstration, we can bring these students as close to those consequences as we can to hopefully influence that decision making,” Burton Fire District Assistant Fire Chief Daniel Byrne said in a news release.
As the crash scene concluded with a medical helicopter lifting off to transport a critically injured occupant, students filed back inside the school for a presentation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and to watch a video presentation from the surviving members of the Simmons family, who lost three family members to a drunk driver in December of 2021 in St. Landry Parish, La.
The students playing the victims were members of the Whale Branch Early College High School drama club, and the participating agencies were the Burton and Sheldon Fire Districts, MCAS Fire and Rescue Division, Beaufort County EMS and Coroner’s Office, South Carolina Highway Patrol, and Air Methods.
