Event plants anti-drinking and driving seed

RONAN - Two automobiles collided head on.

The windows were cracked and busted. Bodies were strewn among the accident site along with broken glass and beer cans. The grim reaper slowly walked from victim to victim, collecting his new-found spirits.

A faint siren wailed in the distance and a 911 call played through speakers as 350 Ronan High School students circled around the site. Luckily for everyone involved the accident was a crash simulation, part of the Ronan High School Ghost Out event held on March 18.

The event, held every four years at local high schools, is a day that concentrates on educating students on the dangers of drunk driving.

"We were trying to show the students how real this could be, yes it's a re-enactment, but the seriousness of the situation is important for the students to understand," Sheriff's Deputy Jay Gillhouse said. "Drunk driving is a real problem for high school students."

Gillhouse, who is also the Ronan/Pablo school resource officer, organized the event along with the Ronan High School student council.

"We've been working on this for months," Ronan student council member Shelby Fisher said.

Fisher said she and some other student council members had to come up with a list of students to be pulled out of class by the grim reaper. A dozen students were taken from class and labeled as victims of a drunk driving accident throughout the day.

At 1 p.m., the students gathered in the gymnasium to mourn the victims of the day. Gillhouse invited members of local emergency services to share experiences they had with responding to fatal drunk driving accidents.

Gillhouse concluded the speech by saying that not only is the potential of a deadly crash real, but drinking and driving is against the law and will land the offender in jail.

"An officer giving you a DUI is doing you a favor, he knows the potential of these accidents and might be saving your life," Gillhouse said.

The students shuffled out of the gymnasium and out of the school towards the parking lot to view the drunk driving crash simulation that concluded the day.

The Lake County Sheriff's Department, Tribal Law and Order enforcement, Ronan Ambulance, Ronan Fire Department, Shrider-Thompson funeral services, Dragon Wagon, Montana Highway Patrol and Careflight from Community Hospital in Missoula all took part in the simulated crash.

Seven students acted as accident victims as the Ronan Ambulance and the Ronan Fire Department worked to free them.

Windows were busted out and doors were ripped off to reach the victims of the crash. Some students in the audience held each other while watching how an actual fatal crash is worked by rescuers. A few of the students were in tears as their classmates and friends were placed on stretchers or in body bags and taken away.

Gillhouse said the crash was planned for months and all the students knew their roles and what ambulances they were getting put into. He said that all the emergency services involved were extremely helpful and once the crash scene was set up everything else fell into place.