Mock Crash at the Ashland County West Holmes Career Center Today
October 13, 2022 Brynn Bailey (Loudonville), Gracie Cover (Mapleton), Maddie Kline (Loudonville), Kylie Longden (Mapleton) are all seniors in the Health Technology Lab at the Ashland County West Holmes Career Center. They have been working on this project since August and chose it to bring awareness to distracted driving among teens and adults.
The students were assisted by Ashland County Sheriff's Office, Ashland Post of the Highway Patrol, Ashland Coroner’s Office, Fickes Funeral Home, Hayesville EMS, Officer Fulton- School Resource Officer, ACWHCC Administration, Gibb’s Towing Company, Mr. Josh Welch (Criminal Justice), Mrs. Dawn Topovski (English Teacher). This production would not have happened without the guidance and help from these entities.
Seniors recognized a problem with teen and adult distracted driving and decided they wanted to make their student body, staff, and community aware by putting on a Mock Crash.
This crash starts with a precursor video setting the stage of the distraction of the girls on their way to pick up a friend for a football game. Right before the crash the girls take their daily BeReal photo and end up hitting a tree head on.
Gracie Cover states she did this project because “I know a couple of people who have passed away in a car accident due to distracted driving and feel it is very important to show the dangers of distracted driving to our peers and the community” She also states this was a difficult project to execute because there are so many people who need to be involved for it to be successful so there were many planning days to prepare for today. She is hoping that by displaying this mock crash it will bring awareness and save some lives.
Maddie Kline states her reason for participating and planning the mock crash was “I wanted everyone to know how important not driving distracted is and what the consequences could be if done. I chose to be a part of this project because there have been a lot of distracted driving accidents during my 4 years of high school and hope to save lives by hosting this mock crash. I know many of my peers who continue to drive distracted and hope by showing them that they will think twice about doing it again.”
Kylie Longden states her reason for doing this was to “I wanted to bring awareness to the community and students here to drive safer and be more aware of your surroundings and the other things that come along with driving. It is important because my peers are more likely to drive distracted because they feel as though they have to instantly respond where we need to be more cautious and wait until we are safely parked.”
Brynn Bailey states her reason for doing this is to “I think distracted driving is overlooked by some people and they believe that it will never happen to them, but life changes in an instant so we can never take advantage and always need to be aware of what we are doing especially while driving. In my 4 years of high school, I have known people who have died in car accidents and it puts into perspective how careful you need to be to protect yourself and others on the road.”
The group as a whole states `` Distracted driving not only affects the driver but those around you on the road. It is not worth risking yours or others lives to take a picture, respond to text, and to answer a call. We want everyone to be safe when driving and we hope they know the seriousness of distracted driving. “
Mrs. Young states “When we do this project every other year it is my hope that we can reach out to kids to explain the importance of not being distracted while driving. This is a project where we reach the community because of Ashland County Pictures and Ashland County Ohio News being able to come and live stream. This project will always be an important part of our lab as I myself have lost friends and family to car accidents. If we can save one life by putting this on, I feel we have accomplished some of our goals.
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