"Game Over" Mock Crash Event – Canceled

UPDATE – May 22, 2013 – This event has been canceled.  Due to the  situation in Town Square Wednesday night, tonight, Carroll ISD and Southlake DPS have canceled tomorrow’s “Game Over” mock vehicle crash at CHS. CISD and DPS mutually agree it is not in the best interest of our students to present this emotionally impactful program at this time. CISD also does not want to pull police resources away from the investigation.

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The Southlake Police and Fire Departments will again participate in this years ‘Game Over’ program for students in the Carroll Independent School District. The program puts a real face to the devastating effects of drinking and driving and distracted teenaged driving.

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 texted while driving were five times more likely than those who didn’t 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 Carroll Independent School High School students this Thursday and Friday, May 23^rd & 24^th.  The ‘Game Over’ program will begin with a mock crash scene on Thursday morning (Tomorrow) at 9:45 a.m. CareFlite will land at Bicentennial Park as part of the mock exercise.  The purpose is to allow students to experience a serious fatality 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 the rest of their 9th and 10th grade 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 goal of the ‘Game Over’ program is to save lives.  Friday will conclude with an assembly at the school. After participating in the two day event it’s hoped that students who experience the ‘Game Over’ mock fatality crash scene will make the right decision to never text and drive or drink and drive.

(***NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC – Thursday morning (Tomorrow), May 23, 2013 at 9:45 a.m. there will be a mock exercise for the annual GAME OVER event for CISD High School students involving a mock crash vehicle and landing by CareFlite at Bicentennial Park.  This is a planned event sponsored by The City of Southlake, Southlake Police and Fire Departments, S.P.A.R.K., Carroll ISD and Baylor Grapevine.)