Nokesville Vol. Fire & Rescue Demonstrates Realistic Accident Rescue Scenario

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Community members gathered at Patriot High School Sunday to see fire and EMT first responders rescue citizens from a car crash. Fortunately, it was not a real crash, but a featured demonstration at the Nokesville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department’s Second Annual Safety Awareness Event.

According to event chairperson Sydni Beatty, “the event was targeted towards teenagers, teaching them the effects of drinking and driving and texting and driving,” including, “the effects on the community, and what the fire fighters go through.”

At the simulated accident, more than 20 first responders in three vehicles helped to secure passengers, and safely free them from their vehicles without adding to their injuries. Fire fighters wore full gear, and followed all the necessary steps to assess the accident and determine the safest way to proceed to rescue the individuals trapped in the car. Real participants played the injured.

As some EMTs interviewed passengers and assessed their medical conditions, others prepped the car. Next, paramedic personnel held the passengers in place and covered their heads with blankets to protect them from debris, while fire fighters used “jaws of life” to break the door off one car, and the roof off another. Then, paramedics quickly but safely attached the passengers to backboards and lifted them out onto stretchers and into the ambulance.

During the 20-minute demonstration, event attendees gathered around at a safe distance to watch in curiosity as volunteer first responders performed their duties, acting as they would in a critical real life situation.

In a briefing following the demonstration, fire fighters told the audience how a teen driver with a blood alcohol level of .02 caused the T-bone accident. While adults are considered to be legally driving while intoxicated after getting a .08 or above in Virginia, for minors that number is .02.

Soon attendees also learned just how serious the injuries were that the victims sustained. As the driver was basically able to walk away, except for the fact he was arrested at the scene, the driver of the other car was killed on impact.

The fire fighters chose to make the deceased a young mother with a baby in the back seat to illustrate how drunk and distracted drivers often hurt or kill innocent people. The child (“played” by a baby doll) survived safely secured in her car seat.

In addition, one of the passengers in the red car received life-changing injuries. The backseat passenger sustained spinal injuries that would likely paralyze her, which is why the jaws of life was required to lift her out of the car.

Another male in the front passenger seat of the teenager’s car received broken bones and wrists. In the scenario, the front passengers had worn their seat belts and their airbags had deployed, while the back passenger had not worn her seat belt.

Beatty said they purposefully chose to include young people in the accident scenario because the demonstration was aimed at high school teens. According to Beatty, had this been a real accident, in which severe injuries were received, they would also have been airlifted to the hospital. However, that was not an available option for liability reasons.

Medical helicopter AirCare1 was present at the Annual Safety Awareness demonstration until it was called out on a real emergency around 1:30 p.m.

Sydni’s husband, John Beatty, President of the Nokesville Fire Department, said fire fighters respond to every serious accident.

“Anytime the community calls 911, we’re there. We never know what the situation is. We need the firemen to cut the car open and EMTs to treat the injuries,” John Beatty said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) also participated in the event. Victim advocate Noreen Dinndorf said after she began this work, she realized how many others had been affected.

“I found out that a number of my friends either lost children or parents. It’s a subject that doesn’t come up a lot in conversation, but it’s surprising how many people have been affected,” Dinndorf said.

At her table, she had photos of victims who lost their lives from drunk driving or to a drunk driver.

On another part of the field, Tom Shrewsburg of the Nokesville Fire Department demonstrated the impact of a slow moving accident on a machine that slides down an incline towards a sudden stop. For people on the ride, the impact is jarring, and serves as a reminder of the dangers of a road accident.

Urfan Chouldhrg, who was recently in an auto accident, decided the ride would be too traumatizing for him at this time, and urged people to drive carefully.

Some of the youngest attendees, however, were excited to see fire fighters in action. Three-year-old Lorenzo McLeod got to sit in a fire truck and talk with the fire fighters.

“He’s a fanatic about fire trucks and firemen, said his father,” Peter, “He can tell you anything you want to know about a fire truck.”

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