Lindbergh High School students watched Sept. 28 as classmates performed in a distracted driving presentation at the school.
The Renton Regional Fire Authority partnered with Lindbergh High School, King County Medic One, and the Renton Police Department to put on the demonstration.
Student actors helped reenact a scene of a vehicle collision involving two vehicles.
The scene showed four Lindbergh students travelling home from a post-homecoming party where alcohol was served, said Sara Morris, public information officer for the Renton Regional Fire Authority. In the other vehicle, containing two students, the driver decided to look down to send a text.
“Impaired driving — drunk driving, distracted driving, under the influence of a substance — is a serious issue that can have devastating consequences for high school students in addition to our community,” Morris said.
The demonstration utilized vehicles provided by Bankers Auto Rebuild and Towing, a Renton business, with damage inflicted to the vehicles prior to the drill.
The Renton Regional Fire Authority staged the scene, ensuring the safety of the vehicles for students to sit in, removing broken glass to prevent injury.
The performance started with a distraught teenager calling their mom at the scene of the accident before calling 911. First responders staged on the perimeter of the high school were dispatched with sirens heard as emergency vehicles arrived on school grounds.
Fire crews rescued students from a destroyed vehicle, cutting apart the vehicle with power tools as medics triaged injured students at the scene, with severely injured students treated first and transported away via ambulance.
Renton police conducted an accident scene investigation and field sobriety test on the student-driver who left in the back of a police vehicle after officers arrested the student for driving under the influence.
First responders covered a deceased student at the scene.
“Our hopes and intent behind this drill was to create an awareness around distracted driving and making an impact for all in attendance,” said Morris in her email.
Following a hiatus of the program resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Renton Regional Fire Authority and partners hope to provide distracted driving demonstrations to more local area high schools in the future, Morris said.
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)
(Courtesy of the Renton Regional Fire Authority.)