TROY — Premier Health’s CareFlight Air and Mobile Services will once again launch its Drive Smart program at high schools in the region.
For more than 20 years, CareFlight has offered Drive Smart, a nationally recognized mock crash program that gives high school students a real-life look at the consequences of poor choices before getting behind the wheel of a car.
In collaboration with the trauma programs at Miami Valley Hospital, Miami Valley Hospital South, Upper Valley Medical Center and Atrium Medical Center, area fire departments, law enforcement, dispatchers, EMS, etc., the Drive Smart mock crash involves a scenario with two wrecked cars that are staged to represent a crash scene immediately following a motor vehicle accident. Student actors are participants in the mock crash.
The mock crash is narrated throughout, and all events occur in real-time, with emergency radio traffic and phone calls made audible for the entire audience. The scenario begins immediately after the crash occurs with bystanders calling 911, and progresses with the dispatch and arrival of police, fire and EMS, the extrication of victims from the vehicles, the dispatch and arrival of the CareFlight helicopter, the transport of the injured crash victims, the arrest of the intoxicated driver, and finally the removal of the deceased victim by the coroner with placement into a hearse.
At the conclusion of the scenario, a parent who has lost a child in a similar situation speaks to the audience, giving an emotional and sobering testimony to the realities of impaired and risky driving.
The objectives of the Drive Smart are geared towards raising teen awareness of the dangers and consequences of bad decision-making, specifically drinking and driving, driving/riding without a seatbelt, texting and driving.
The following are confirmed dates and locations for the Drive Smart program at local schools:
• April 22 at 9:30 a.m. at Franklin Monroe High School
• April 24 at 1 p.m. at Covington High School
• April 26 at 9:15 a.m. at Versailles High School
• May 2 at 1:30 p.m. at Newton High School
Drive Smart is free to area high schools.
