S.A.D.D.

Students Against Dangerous Driving

Today one of our students arranged a demonstration of an 'accident'  at school.  The students got to see the process from emergency services arriving through to the 'driver' being taken away by ambulance.

First the car was secured, then the 'patient' was stabilized (neck brace and bandaging etc) while the fire service used the 'jaws of life' to cut the roof off the car.  The patient was then removed using a back board.

It was an excellent demonstration for which I must thank P (our student SADD representative, M (our student 'driver'), D (the staff member who donated the smashed car to be used), the local Fire Brigade and our St Johns Ambulance volunteers.

I think it was really important that our students saw how traumatic this was.  D (one of our staff) talked about losing her husband in a motorbike accident and how it felt years later getting a call to say her daughter had been in an accident (in this very car).  I then spoke about how it felt as a mother to have my son killed by a drunk driver.  D and I both cried, though we had tried really hard not to!

It was incredibly hard watching the process, especially the roof being cut off, as I couldn't help imagining that it was my son lying fatally injured across the back seat.  Ugh.

But very important.  I hope there were some messages that our students have taken away with them.