COLONY — Crest High School senior Haylee Beckmon and her classmates watched a gruesome scene unfold on Tuesday afternoon.
The bloodied body of senior Sydney Stephens lay across the hood of a truck, apparently having been thrown through the window in a rollover collision. Three other seniors were inside the cab, also injured.
Rescue workers used the “Jaws of Life” to pry open the driver’s door. Empty cans and bottles of alcohol fell from the truck and clattered to the ground. Students who were watching let out a collective gasp.
The accident scene was fake, organized by the Anderson County EMS, Colony Fire and Rescue, and Colony City Marshal Angela Gardner.
Their goal is to help teenagers understand the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as distracted driving, and to encourage them to make smart choices.
“It’s definitely scary,” Beckmon said. “When we walked out and I saw Sydney laying there, it looked like she was dead. I was not expecting that. It definitely makes you think differently.”
Organizer Ashli Gavel, a paramedic, hopes the message resonates.
“The more realistic we can make it, the more it hits home. I’m not going to sugarcoat it for teens. Death is scary,” Gavel said.
THE SCENE at Crest is the fifth mock DUI accident Gavel has staged across three states.
This event is based on a real-life fatality crash she worked about two years ago. In that incident, four teenagers were involved in a crash. When she drove up to the scene, two of the teens were performing CPR on their friend, who was already gone. The driver tested barely over the legal limit for alcohol and was charged with manslaughter; he is now navigating both school and the legal system. The surviving teens are receiving counseling.
It turns out Gavel knew the family of one of the teens, so she’s witnessed the impact that kind of tragedy can have on everyone involved from the emergency response personnel to the teens involved in the crash and the families of both those who survived and the one who didn’t.
“If I can impact just one life and prevent someone from making a poor decision, that’s worth it,” she said. 
STUDENTS WATCHED the scene unfold as it would in real time.
An ambulance and rescue personnel arrived to check the students’ conditions, then either treat them on the scene or prepare them to be transported to a hospital.
Seniors Jack White and Allyssa Adams portrayed passengers who received minor injuries. As their fellow students noted, the cab of a pickup has just three seatbelts. In this scenario, Stephens did not have a seatbelt and was thrown through the window when the truck rolled.
Kamryn Luedke played the role of the driver. After she was checked by EMS, Colony Police Chief Angela Gardner questioned her, conducted a field sobriety test and arrested her. 
Gardner reported the driver’s blood-alcohol content was .03. That’s well below the legal standard for an adult, which is .08, but in Kansas, the limit for an underage driver is .02. It doesn’t take much alcohol before a teen exceeds that limit, Gardner noted.
“When you make a bad decision, it’s a game changer,” Gardner told students after emergency personnel cleared the scene.
“Some of the things that could happen to you: mandatory arrest, your vehicle towed, you will lose your license, you have to pay thousands in legal fees. If there’s an injury or death, you can be charged with crimes including manslaughter and could face jail and have to pay penalties.”
The students also heard from Gavel, paramedic Troy Armstrong, Chaplain Doug Meyer and coroner Don Nungesser. 
Armstrong shared statistics:
— In 2022, Anderson County EMS responded to 30 traffic accidents, including one that took the life of a young person because of texting and driving.
— One person is killed every 45 minutes in the U.S. because of a drunk driving accident.
— It takes an average of 5 minutes between the time someone calls 911 and an ambulance is disptached, plus however long it takes for the ambulance to reach the location. In some rural areas, that could be 20 minutes.
— EMS and rescue crews try to spend no more than 10 minutes on a scene before the injured parties are transferred to a hospital.
“Don’t be a statistic. Be a game changer. Be responsible and save a life,” Armstrong said.
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