Ellis Tech hosted its first mock fatal car crash drinking and driving presentation on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. The event began in the gymnasium with a group of seniors and drama club members performing a party skit that set the scene for the accident outside. Lance Battersby, a senior, pretended to be drinking and highly intoxicated at the party before getting a phone call to go and pick up his sister, Heather, and her best friend, Marybeth Murdock. As he left the stage, the curtains closed and a conversation played of Lance picking up the girls and how upset they were that he was drinking. The sound of a crash came next followed by a frantic 911 call from an unidentified witness to the accident.

The students then proceeded outside to the parking lot where two cars were covered with tarps. As the tarps came off, you saw the fatal accident scene. The emergency personnel started to arrive and help at the scene. Marybeth had gone through the windshield and was pronounced dead. Her body was put into a body bag and removed by the funeral home. Heather was in the back seat without a seatbelt and, after being rescued from the car by the Jaws of Life, was flown by Life Star to the hospital. She was paralyzed from the neck down. The driver of the second car, Danielle Ducat, was pronounced dead and also put into a body bag and removed from the scene by the funeral home. The passenger, Matthew Whipple, sustained minor injuries and was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Lance, the driver, was not injured in the accident but was put through alcohol testing by the state police, arrested, and removed from the scene in a squad car.

Students were able to look at Life Star and ask questions to the pilots and on board nurses as well as take a turn on the Convincer, an apparatus that simulates the impact of a car accident. Each of the emergency staff were there on a volunteer basis and did an excellent job with the presentation. The entire event was coordinated by Ellis teachers Ivy Greenhalgh and Jennifer Audette. Participants were all students from Ellis and were accompanied by family members while in the accident, in order to portray a realistic event. Khone Thoumanny, senior, and Christina Mele, a junior, responded with K-B Ambulance as they are both active members.

The objective was to educate the students about the consequences of drinking and driving, not wearing a seatbelt, and making poor choices. The presentation comes in time for both the junior and senior proms, as well as senior awards night and graduation. The Norwich Bulletin and Channel 3 news were on hand to document and report the event. A special thank you goes to Tina Miclette and the sophomore hairdressers for allowing us to use their shop as our staging are, Warren Knisbaum, the drama club advisor, Fred DePietro and the Electronics shop for the audio set up, and the administration for allowing such an event to take place at our school.

The Mock Car Crash Cast