Archive: Around Town

There is nothing like seeing your classmates and friends lying in the road bloody -- some taken away by ambulance, others in body bags deposited into a hearse, and others taken away in handcuffs -- to make you think twice about text messaging while driving.

That's what Lansing High School students saw yesterday when they ran outside from an assembly to view a fatal two car accident on the road next to their school.  At least that's what the Lansing Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) members wanted their classmates to think they were seeing.

"Even though some of the kids in school knows it's coming, it hits them really hard," says SADD Advisor Kevin Wyszkowski.  "The way the characters are made up it's too real for me.  It's too gruesome, something you never want to see.  It's amazing how 400 plus students are completely silent for that.  They see what could potentially happen to their friends."


The student club enacts a mock car crash every three years.  This Thursday was chosen because it is two days before the Junior/Senior Prom, and not long before graduation, notoriously bad times when more accidents occur.  They enlist the aid of multiple agencies to make it seem as real as possible.  Moms volunteer to apply the makeup, and even trained in Pennsylvania three years ago to learn how to make it look realistic.

"What I really like about it is that it's not just SADD," Wyszkowski says.  "It's the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department.  It' Bangs Ambulance, Tompkins County Sheriff's Department, Fingerlakes Wrecker Service, Lansing Funeral Home -- so many people.  The Highway Department closes off the roads, and Buildings and Grounds at Lansing schools.  The whole community comes together for this event."


"We're very excited to be a part of it," says Lansing Funeral Home owner Lisa Auble, who has brought her assistant Jim Evans to participate.  "I'm glad we can help.  We never want to do it for real.  That's the whole point of today, to try to avoid these tragedies."

This year SADD offered a new twist.  Instead of enacting a drunk driving scenario they decided to show how dangerous text messaging while driving has become.  "The driver is texting and that leads to a collision," explains SADD President Jess Uhrovcik, who plays the role of the texting driver.  "The back story is that they're borrowing the car from a friend.  There are beer cans in the back, which they did not know about.  They flew forward so everyone thinks I was driving and was drunk at the time."


SADD Vice President Susan Lin first saw the mock car crash three years ago.  It made her want to join SADD to help spread the message that kids should think before acting.  "I want them to have the same feeling that I did when I first watched this," she says.  "It was a wake-up call.  When I saw it as a freshman I was surprised.  You can stop it if you show people what can happen.  I want people to walk away with that thought that you may be having a great time drinking or texting while you're driving, but there are consequences.  Other people can get hurt.  There are so many things that can happen. You have to be aware of your actions and what can happen."

The enactment has special impact on the Griffin family.  Kayla, a past SADD president and her brother CJ were on hand to help even though both have graduated.  CJ has joined his parents Dennis and Candi as a volunteer firefighter.  But three years ago when he saw his sister being zipped into a body bag he flipped out.

"I didn't know she was in it until the day of the crash," he recalls.  "I didn't know if she was going to be alive.  I came onto the scene and saw my sister just lying there.  I figured she was dead.  I wanted to hit Andy Lockwood who was 'driving' the vehicle.  Even though it was fake it felt so real to me."


As a volunteer fire fighter Dennis has had to pull kids out of accidents over the years and deal with parents whose children are dead or severely injured.  He recently had a scare when Kayla and her friend hit a deer on Auburn Road, and was told that Kayla had hit the windshield. 

"In emergency service it's called a 1079," he says.  "It means you're going to put them in a black bag.  The worst thing for a fire service person is to get on the scene and recognize a friend's kid or your own kid.  Now you have to try to control yourself and do your job the best you can.  Hopefully everybody comes out alright, but you always know there is that other side where now you're going to a funeral and not to a birthday, or a party or graduation."

Even when you know it was fake the images are so stark that you can't help but have a strong reaction.  "To see your kid lying in the road is emotional," Candi says.  "The worst part for me is that they actually put her in a body bag and put her in a hearse and drove away.  We just kept telling ourselves over and over that it was fake."


The group spent the morning at Lansing Central Fire Station where they were made up to look as realistically gruesome as possible.  Wyszkowski went over the game plan before they went to the scene after noon. 

"My son James was in the crash three years ago," says Nancy Lauzun during a break from applying the makeup.  "I enjoy being part of something that is going to be such a memorable experience for the kids.  It's all about making the gashes look real and trying to creep each other out.  But when you get to the scene it gets very serious.  When they start to scream and yell and to create the accident scene.  The emergency vehicles come and the audience starts to add that energy to it -- it really starts to be a different kind of experience.  That's when they learn that it's a serious business, that there are crashes that people don't walk away from."

"I'm so glad that I volunteered," adds Bobby Wasenko, whose daughter Alyssa is covered in stage blood.  "If I had to watch this without going through the process of doing the makeup I think I would have lost it.  The way my daughter is made up is so realistic."


As the enactment progresses, fire fighters and EMT responders extract the victims from the car.  Uhrovcik is given tested for alcohol and eventually led away in handcuffs.  Some victims are taken on stretchers into an ambulance, while one leaves the scene in a body bag in a hearse.  As a Sheriff's Deputy tells the crowd the consequences of the crash they learn just how destructive a decision it is to try to drive while text messaging, which has surpassed drunk driving as the cause of the most accidents.

"My parents have been through this, and then they got sober," Uhrovcik says.  "I grew up with two people to look up to.  I thought that was really great and I wanted to be a part of that and show other students that there are alternatives to drinking and driving, and other things like texting and driving which you shouldn't do."

"As far as I'm concerned they are protecting our future," says Wyszkowski.  "This weekend is the prom.  We can measure the success of this when we read the papers Monday morning."

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