Mock Crash Serves As A Pre-Prom Reminder

By Steve Bigham

The entire student body at Newtown High School witnessed the horror and agony that can come with a motor vehicle accident last Friday morning during a mock fatal car crash behind the school.

They saw the mangled metal strewn before them on the soccer field and they heard the bloodcurdling screams of their classmates from the drama club who volunteered to play the parts of the victims.

Moments after the crash, police were on the scene assessing the injuries in this two-car accident which, according to narrator Bill McAllister of Sandy Hook Fire Company, took place after one of the cars struck a pedestrian, who became wedged between the two cars.

Soon Sandy Hook firefighters and ambulance corps members were also on scene. Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to rip off the roofs and doors of the cars to gain access to the patients. EMTs rushed in to try and save those who managed to survive.

One high school student (Chris Lyddy) was left unattended, however. He lay motionless on the hood of Pat Curran’s car after being thrown through the windshield. There would be no prom or graduation for this young man. The class trip was out of the question. He did, however, get a lift from two men who showed up in jacket and tie. The men in black were none other than Bill and Dan Honan from Honan Funeral Home. They calmly placed Chris in a body bag, rolled him into the back of the Honan Dodge Caravan, and drove away from the scene.

Meanwhile, Chris’ friend Pat Curran was busy with two uniformed officers who were conducting field sobriety tests. He was suspected of driving while intoxicated and his inability to walk a straight line confirmed the officers’ suspicions. Handcuffed, Pat was placed in the back of a nearby cruiser and given a free lift to jail.

Lori Beth Pavone (an EMT/emergency dispatcher) also played a role in the mock crash, playing the part of the pedestrian who was struck by the one car and wedged between the two. Her right leg was severed. Organizer Bob Kotch, the Newtown Police Department’s school resource officer, said he chose to show such a terrible injury to remind youngsters that many people in car accidents actually survive, only to have to live with disabilities for the rest of their lives. It could be a missing leg, a crushed spine, or a brain that simply no longer works.

“When you have a dead person, they’re dead and they’re gone. With an amputee, it changes their lives forever,” he said.

Lori Beth actually lost her leg in a motorcycle accident several years ago.

What last week’s mock crash failed to show was the finality that comes with a deadly car accident. It failed to show the agony that parents must go through when notified by police that their son or daughter is dead. It failed to show the broken dreams and wasted future that drunk driving can cause. There simply was not enough time.

The prom takes place this Friday night (May 18) and organizers hope last week’s event will make students think twice about drinking and driving because, as Sandy hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead pointed out, last week’s mock crash was not too far from the real thing. The only difference, he said, is that the blood is much redder and the screams of the injured are a lot louder at the real thing.

Other NHS drama club members involved in the mock crash were Erin Zaruba, Deirdre Dougherty, Travis Finlayson, Mike DeLuca, Scott Jackson, and Brett Boles.