VIDEO STORY: Mock car crash teaches students dangers of drunk driving

Maricopa High School senior Rachel Cortese, 18, lay in the grass next to two damaged cars, each missing a front windshield. Cortese’s shirt and face appeared soaked with blood. 

A police dispatcher’s voice blared out on a loud speaker system. 

“Vehicle collision at Maricopa High School. Two vehicles involved. One confirmed ejection. Unknown extent of injuries. Ak-Chin Fire is in route. All units respond. Code 3.” 

The police officers, firefighters and paramedics who responded to the two-car crash on a grassy courtyard at Maricopa High School Thursday morning were real. The situation, however, was not. 

The Maricopa Police Department, Ak-Chin Fire Department and Southwest Ambulance took part in the mock crash, a presentation meant to warn upper classmen about the importance of safe driving and the dangers of driving drunk. The event, organized by American Family Insurance, took place two days before the high school’s prom. 

“What we’re looking to do is to show them that the choices that they make today and tomorrow can really (create) that ripple effect in the puddle of their life,” said Chris Cahall, an American Family Insurance agent and event organizer. 

The insurance agency provided two vehicles for the presentation. Four students – Cortese, Nathan Wahlgren, 17, Alex Cruz, 18, and Tia Yap, 18 – volunteered as performers. The police, fire and paramedics treated the situation as a training exercise. 

Junior and senior students, who were not told about the event beforehand, watched the scene while standing behind yellow crime tape blocking off a grassy courtyard area. 

Even though emergency crews treated the crash like a real-life emergency, the situation was pre-scripted. Yap, the school’s senior class president, acted as a narrator and started the presentation with a story. 

Wahlgren and Cortese were on their way to prom, Yap told students. Wahlgren had been drinking before he picked up his date. 

With lights and sirens on, police, firefighters and paramedics drove their emergency vehicles into the courtyard. A blue sheet was laid over Cortese’s body. A field sobriety test was administered on Wahlgren before he was placed in cuffs. 

Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to pull a woman actor out of one vehicle. They put her on a stretcher and drove away in the ambulance. 

***ADVERTISEMENT***Maricopa Police Chief Steve Stahl said the presentation allowed police to paint “a real picture of consequences” to students and empower them to be responsible. 

“We can’t be watching the kids all the time,” Stahl said. “And the kids may or may not participate in drinking alcohol, but what we want for sure is to enforce safety.” 

Stahl added that with upcoming celebrations such as prom and graduation, the presentation posed a lesson for students to understand “consequences of celebrating in the wrong fashion.” 

After the presentation, Vice Mayor Edward Farrell shared his personal experience of being arrested for DUI in 2005. 

“I call my offense the two Hs,” Farrell told students. “It was very humiliating, but very humbling at the same time. There’s not a worse feeling in the world than to sit in that (police) car right there intoxicated and hearing those sirens behind you. It’s a sound that sticks in my mind and is a nightmare in my mind and will be for the rest of my life.”