The morning of Thursday, May 9, 2024, the student body from Oberlin High School stood on the front lawn as they witnessed two of their classmates undergo extrication from a car by Oberlin’s emergency rescue personnel with a hydraulic rescue tool, also known as “jaws of life.”
As the tool cut through the metal car, the loud “pop” was enough to jolt some of the students. As some students grabbed their cell phones to record the moment, others stood there in shock.
And then a voice from the car yelled, “HELP ME!”
While the event was a re-enactment, the message was clear: distracted driving can happen in mere seconds and it can be life-changing.
OHS Senior Madelyn Hanmer, with the help of her dad, Oberlin Fire Department Chief Robert Hanmer, wanted to show what can happen in a split-second if a person is driving while texting, under the influence or simply not paying attention to their surroundings.
“This is something that I think is a very important issue currently, and I thought that doing it around prom and graduation would be a great time to reintroduce the mock accident,” she said. It has been at least five years since a demonstration like this has been viewed by OHS students.
The scene played out with the two “victims” being removed from the car, uploaded onto an EMS stretcher, placed in an ambulance and then speaking to law enforcement.
“The initiative is to encourage safe driving. This was a very powerful exercise today, and I am proud of Madelyn for bringing it back to Oberlin High School,” Superintendent Dr. David Hall said.
Participating in the mock accident were the Oberlin Fire Department, Oberlin Police Department, Central Lorain County Ambulance District and members of the OHS Drama Club.
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