Mock crash scenario at Westerly High School shows students drunk driving's terrible toll

WESTERLY — An after-prom celebration took a tragic turn shortly after 1 a.m. when four local teens were involved in a late-night crash, killing one of the car’s young occupants.

Fortunately, it was only a simulated scenario that took place Thursday afternoon at Westerly High School. But the scene plays out in real life many times across the country each year, and the students of Bulldog Nation got to witness it for themselves in a special presentation.

A battered car right in front of the high school’s Ward Avenue building set the scene for a dramatic lesson about the dangers of drinking and driving. Inside the car were four students returning from an after-prom party, still in their dresses but now covered in open wounds and blood.

One, the car’s driver, stumbles out of the car screaming and places a frantic 911 call. Minutes later, the first Westerly police vehicle arrives, followed shortly by an ambulance and fire trucks.

Natalie Francese, 16, portrayed the driver. Francese and the victims of the crash are students in the Stage Dogs theater program. Other students played parents of the unfortunate students.

“We went to prom earlier that day then went to a party, and got drunk,” she explained. “This is very extreme and I love it.”

The simulation was the result of teamwork between the high school’s medical pathways students, its theater group and personnel from the Westerly Police Department, Westerly Fire Department and Westerly Ambulance.

Students dressed in firefighter gear and EMT uniforms moved in with backboards, oxygen bags, and neck braces to tend to the injured kids. Nearby, a police officer began to give a sobriety test to the driver.

More firefighters moved in with the hydraulic tool commonly called the "Jaws of Life" to pry the car’s roof off in order to extricate one of the patients. Sadly, one of the victims didn’t make it. The EMTs placed a yellow tarp over her body.

The driver, Francese, was taken into police custody as part of the simulation.

“Hopefully people will get the message,” Francese said. “This is a big deal.”

The drunk-driving mock crash was put together largely by Westerly High School senior Cameron Lewis as his senior project.

“I just wanted to raise awareness of drinking and driving, with prom coming up and everything,” he said. Lewis said he is considering becoming at EMT out of high school, but also pursuing a sports medicine career.

Lewis portrayed an EMT in Thursday’s event. He clutched a bag-valve mask before the presentation.

“We use it to give air to the victim if they’re unconscious,” he said.

About 20 students in the high school’s Medical Pathways program, led by instructor Duane Maranda, took part, plus eight Stage Dogs and three or four criminal justice students involved in supervising field sobriety tests. Cosmetology students did the bloody makeup. Lewis said the car came from a local junkyard.

All the students “did really good,” Lewis said. “We’ve been practicing this for a while now.”

Lewis and the student cast also had to contend with a last-minute change. A Life Star helicopter was scheduled to land on the nearby quad as part of the presentation, but the copter had been called away to a real emergency.

“I wish the helicopter was here,” Lewis said. He used a camera to document the event and will make a presentation later as part of his senior project.

“This has been being planned for about a year,” Maranda said. “At the beginning of the school year, Cameron was talking about a senior project, and we thought this would be a great idea for him to take the lead on. Cameron coordinated all the patient care, all the student help, the actors. He wrote most of the script.”