Archive: Around Town

Lansing High School, 5/17 --  Lansing High School students were in the gym for an assembly Wednesday afternoon when Junior Katie Bruno, covered with blood, came to the door screaming for help.  As she ran back to the scene of a car crash, the whole assembly followed her to the intersection of a High School parking lot and Ludlowville Road.  There they found two of their classmates, Laura Hover and Kayla Griffin, dead, with another, James Lauzun, trapped in his car.  Bruno, disoriented, was screaming and in shock as she realized Griffin was dead.  Hover's arm had been amputated in the crash, and was dripping blood.  As students watched the Lansing Fire Department and Tompkins County Sheriffs respond to the accident a MedEvac helicopter flew Lauzun away.  He died en route.  Drunk driver Andy Lockwood had the least serious injuries.  He was given a sobriety test and arrested.


This chilling scene was enough to affect anyone, but especially students watching, many of whom are friends of the victims.  Even though it was an enactment and not a real accident, it felt real enough to be chilling.  Some students were very upset, one actually fainting and being whisked away by Bangs paramedics.  Most watched stunned as the realistic enactment progressed.  And that made the event a success for the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) members who staged it.  "I just want to impact some of the students, especially before prom weekend," Hover said.  "Even if we can just impact one student it's worthwhile."
The event has been planned for nearly a year by SADD President Lauzun fellow SADD members and advisor Kevin Wyszkowsji.  They raised money for the event by selling entertainment coupon books last summer.  Fingerlakes Wrecker Service, which also provides cars for Fire Department training, donated the two cars.  A makeup expert helped with past events, but now retired, she trained students and Moms to apply the all too realistic looking injuries to the student actors.  Candi Griffin and Anne Drake were at the Central Fire Station around 7am to begin applying the makeup.  Students got a lunch break before moving to the accident scene and positioning themselves in and around the crashed cars.  "You pick your characters carefully," Wyszkowsji says.  "And you have to do it realistically, who would hang out with who."  The group tried not to let other students know what they were doing ahead of time so they could produce the maximum shock value.

Firefighters try to console Katie Bruno	Firefighters peel roof off to extract victim James Lauzun
Andrew Mowson nursing a fracture	MedEvac lands in nearby ball field

Wyszkowsji says that it works.  "We strategically place it right before the prom so that they have this in their memories.  I have kids come back that are in college, or out of college now.  They still say, 'I remember that so clearly.'  When you can make a lasting impression like that -- where five or six years down the road they're still talking about it -- if it stops them from making that one mistake just once, then we've done our job."
In the scenario a few students decide to skip school to drink beer in Myers Park.  As they drive back to school they plow into another car.  One girl's arm is amputated in the crash, and she dies along with another who was thrown from the other car by the impact.  One of the most chilling images was when fire fighters put Hover and Griffin into body bags, with Kirk Shreve and his crew from Lansing Funeral Home standing by with a gurney.  Griffin had practiced being in the bag earlier in the week.  "It wasn't too bad on Monday night being in the bag with everyone standing around, but it is a pretty morbid experience," she said.

Drunk driver Andy Lockwood is placed under arrest

In the morning before the event students were excited, but nervous.  "I think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in something like this," Bruno said shortly before the event  "To put yourself in the shoes of someone it happened to is something you never want to do, but it's as close as you can get to doing it.  It's an amazing opportunity."  Mowson added, " It's all about teaching people about the real danger of what goes on.  We all know each other, so it's a very personal experience seeing it happen to your friends."

SADD Advisor Kevin Wyszkowsji (left) and Lansing Funeral Home's Kirk Shreve

It may have been most personal for the parents.  Candi Griffin couldn't bring herself to put the makeup on her own daughter, and parents were very apprehensive about seeing the crash scenario.  Dennis Griffin, Kayla's father and a fire fighter on the scene was very apprehensive Wednesday morning before the event.  "I've responded to a number of these emergencies over the years and I've seen the outcome." he said.  "I've trained myself to do the job first and do the breakdown later.  But with my daughter involved -- I've been thinking about it for the last two weeks -- I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it."

Evidently that strong an impact has positive results.  Drunk driving isn't a big problem among Lansing students.  Wyszkowsji says Sheriffs have told him that there are fewer High School students getting DWIs in Tompkins Country.  "That's how I measure our success," he says.  "You look at the newspaper Monday after prom weekend and there are no stories about drunk driving and you know you made an impact."

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