Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mock Crash Staged at CHS Puts Teen Tragedies in Spotlight

game over logoThe Southlake Police and Fire Departments will again participate in this year’s Game Over program for driving-age students in Carroll ISD. Organizers say the program puts a real face to the devastating effects of drinking and driving and distracted driving among teenagers.

Drinking and driving was once the main focus of the Game Over program but it has now expanded to include texting and driving due to an increase in driving fatalities and serious injuries among teenagers. Texting and driving now kills more teens than drunk driving according to the Centers for Disease Control. Statistics show that teens who text while driving were five times more likely than those who did not, to also drive impaired.

In 2012, there were more than 90,000 traffic crashes in Texas that involved distracted driving. These crashes resulted in approximately 18,500 serious injuries and more than 450 deaths according to The Texas Department of Transportation. Nearly 1 in 4 crashes involve distracted driving.

Southlake Police and Fire will be participating in a two-day mock exercise with students at Carroll High School on Thursday and Friday, May 23- 24. The Game Over program will begin with a mock crash scene on the morning of May 23 at 9:45 a.m. Careflite will land in the vicinity of Bicentennial Park as part of the mock exercise. According to organizers, the purpose is to allow students to experience a serious fatal crash in real time with living actors to really drive home the message that drinking and driving and texting and driving kills.

Several students will play the role of actors who have been seriously injured or will play dead in the mock exercise while classmates look on. The mock exercise is about as real as it gets for these students, parents and teachers without having to experience a tragedy in real life. Following the mock crash another actor will play the role of the Grim Reaper throughout the day pulling students randomly out of class to demonstrate how many people are killed each year due to distracted driving.

The Game Over program concludes Friday, May 24 with an assembly at the school. After participating in the two-day event police say they hope students who experience the mock fatal crash scene will make the right decision to never text and drive or drink and drive.

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