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An 'accident' was an eye-opener for students
 

By Sheila Dianoski
Mesabi Daily News

Minnesota

April 22, 2004

The woman called again and again for her daughter.

“Becca! Where’s Becca? Becca, mama will find you,” she yelled as EMTs strapped her to a stretcher. Her attention turned to the emergency responders as she was rolled away. “Are you taking care of Becca?”

They had no answer.

Her young teenage daughter remained splayed across the hood of the Blazer, where she had been catapulted through the windshield of her family’s minivan. Her lifeless body remained untouched by police and first responders, while they turned to more pressing matters — the drunk driver and injured passengers of the Chevrolet Blazer.

Officer John Backman jerked open the mangled passenger-side door and EMTs helped the young woman, dressed for prom, onto a waiting stretcher. She had just watched one girl die on the hood of the vehicle, right in front of her, and lost a friend who had been riding in the back seat of the Blazer. And her prom date, the driver, was being booked by police.

She was one of the lucky ones in the accident. She had survived and hadn’t been the one driving, so she wouldn’t face prison time. It wasn’t her with the dead daughter. Her prom date had also survived.

But her life would change forever. Her date was now a felon, her friend had died, and her friend’s date was in critical condition. She would have to live with these horrible memories of her prom night.

As she was rolled away, the sheriff on the scene finally had a spare moment for Becca. He draped a blanket over her body and shot a few photos for the records.

The drunk-driving accident would have been tragic. It would have rocked the small community of Aurora to the core — if it were real.

The mock car crash was staged outside the Mesabi East School Thursday morning. Students looked on as a father raged and a mother went into shock, neither really understanding their daughter was dead. They watched as the sheriff and EMTs kicked beer cans out of the way so they could help the injured family and prom couples. They waited while the funeral home gathered up the bodies of the two girls, one a young teenager, the other trailing a long, black prom dress.

Then they gathered in the school’s gym to hear about the accident’s aftermath.

“If this were not make-believe, that might have been the last time you see Jake for five years,” Gordon Coldagelli, assistant St. Louis County attorney, told the students as the young drunk driver was led away by the sheriff. “He won’t go to county jail or to a work farm. He will go to prison, with murderers and rapists. He’s now a convicted felon.”

His life will never be the same, Coldagelli said. He will never be able to get a student loan, will have to report his felony on all job applications and will have a hard time getting loans to buy a car or a home.

But the repercussions of his decisions wouldn’t stop there.

“Then there’s your family,” Coldagelli told the assembly. “If you’re still under their insurance, and most of you probably are, their rates will skyrocket.”

The family could also be sued, he said. If they lose and insurance can’t pay the full amount awarded by the judge, the family would have to pay out of their pockets or file bankruptcy.

“All because you had to have a few drinks before you got behind the wheel,” Coldagelli said.

He also urged the students to think about the possibility of killing a friend by drinking and driving.

“Think about this,” he said. “You’re in a one-vehicle accident. You go off the road and hit a tree and your girlfriend dies. About 24 hours later, she’s laid out on a metal table, being dissected.”

An autopsy and cause of death is required to prosecute a drunk driver, Coldagelli said.

Keith Shatava, a mortician with Ziemer-Moeglein-Shatava Funeral Home, also told the students what would happen to the victims’ bodies after an accident.

“I don’t enjoy placing young people in body bags,” he said. “I don’t like telling the parents that no matter how much work I do, their son or daughter will never look like themselves again.”

The family then has to struggle through their heartbreak to deal with the details and costs of a funeral, Shatava said.

And the effects of drinking and driving can ripple even farther.

“A lot of things happen beyond the accident itself,” St. Louis County Sheriff John Backman told the assembly. Emergency responders, officers and bystanders can go through trauma just by witnessing the scene. “I’ve known first responders who’ve had to quit because the arrive at an accident and there’s a child victim or someone they love at the scene.”

Responding to accident scenes also poses a threat to the officials, Backman said.

“I sometimes have to drive 40 to 85 miles to get to the site, often in excess of 120 miles per hour,” he said. “And there are first responders out there doing the same, and sometimes multiple police cars, too.”

Last year, 52 officers died responding to accident scenes, Backman said.

The sheriff has responded to multiple fatal crashes over the years and has had to notify parents or other loved ones of their family member’s death.

“About 80 percent of fatals in those accidents have involved chemicals,” Backman said. “Contrary to popular belief, drugs are as bad as alcohol ... I no longer look at driving under the influence as just a DUI. To me, it’s much like attempted manslaughter.”

He asked the students to be responsible when it comes to drinking and driving, not only for themselves but others as well.

“I can arrest 100 DUIs in a year and may never stop this (accident) from happening,” Backman said. “But when society won’t tolerate it, when friends say it’s not acceptable, that’s when it will stop. You have more power to stop this from happening than I do.”

This article was reprinted in full by kind permission of the Mesabi Daily News