Bonnyville students go through Mock Collision presentation

An experience they hope by going through once, they’ll never have to again.

That’s part of the idea behind the annual Mock Collision presentation done in Bonnyville on Tuesday, with Grade 10 students getting up close and personal look at the deadly dangers that making a big mistake can have.

This year’s theme was the same as last year’s, the dangers of distracted driving, all the more real by what BRFA Regional Fire Chief Dan Heney told Lakeland Connect: a very similar collision had coincidentally taken place just a day prior.

Local responders went to a vehicle versus a bicycle that resulted in a critical patient.

“For every one second you look away from the road to pay attention to your phone to text or do whatever, it means you’ve travelled almost 50 feet. That’s a long ways,” said Heney.

The mock situation on a drizzly Tuesday morning had some students be in the acting roles, and involved a fatal collision with a bicycle, to a swerve into an SUV.

It allows students to see the process from the initial 9-1-1 call, to the emergency response of ambulances, fire, RCMP, to then a hospital visit (makeshift in the Agriplex).

Kevin Brooks was the keynote speaker for the day who discussed his own poor choice of drinking and driving that took his friend’s life.

“It’s really about giving a high school students the insight of what the end result of one single poor decision can look like,” said Heney.

VIDEO: Dan Heney