Scene creates horror of drinking and driving

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Students from two area high schools witnessed an accident at the Brown County Fairgrounds early Monday morning.

Trouble is, it wasn't real.

Instead, they saw the latest in the ongoing series of mock traffic crashes that area law enforcement agencies stage in order to hammer home the message that pops up every year around prom time -- don't drink and drive.

The so-called accident began after approximately 600 students filed into the bleachers and sat down. Then the narration began.

Those students, mostly from Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop and Minnesota Valley Lutheran, witnessed the aftermath of a decision by some teen-agers to skip prom and go drinking. The incident ended in a three-car accident, which claimed the lives of three people, including a baby.

Students also saw and heard to the sights and sounds of a real emergency.

The response began after a simulated 911 call, which prompted ambulances, police cars and fire trucks to rush into the coliseum with their lights flashing and sirens wailing.

North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale even supplied a helicopter for use as an airlift. Sheriff's deputies from Sibley and Watonwan counties assisted at the crash and made mock DWI arrests.

"The purpose is to make kids aware of the ramifications of drinking and driving," said Sibley County Sheriff's Deputy Shaun Pomplun. "It was a good turnout."

Monday's mock crash is the first of two being staged by Pomplun's department. The second is scheduled for mid-May at the Sibley County Fairgrounds in Arlington, he said. Pomplun said the Brown County Fairgrounds were chosen for their size.

The mock crash was also the first for GFW Principal Jeff Bertrang. He said the presentation had maximum impact on his students because of its closeness to the date of GFW's prom.

"A lot of students took it to heart," Bertrang said. "I was impressed."

The mock crash also used police, fire and rescue crews from Gibbon, Fairfax and Winthrop.

Bertrang said GFW students from grades 8-12 attended the mock crash. He estimated GFW's attendance at 430 students.

Rev. Wayne Fischer of MVL said his 237 students participated as the culmination of a year-long joint project with GFW about safety.

"It was a good way for students to think about the impact that poor decision-making has not only on them, but on others," he said.