Pioneer Career and Technology Center experienced a first on Thursday after students Chelsea Civay and Mercedes Kessler organized the school’s first mock crash as part of their senior project.
Civay and Kessler are both part of the medical technologies program at Pioneer. Since October, they have been working on the mock crash project and finally saw all of their hard work come to fruition. They organized four separate viewings of the mock crash to accommodate the number of students at the school.
During the presentation, students heard from Pioneer’s Director of Operations Greg Nickoli, who stated, “Our number one priority here at Pioneer is your safety, and [Kessler and Civay] presented this as a way to help educate you about the dangers of not only drunk driving, and that’s the specific focus of today, but also any kind of danger while driving.”
The students then watched a video that set the scene for the mock crash, showing teens who were under the influence and on their way to the prom. Afterwards, everyone filed outside to witness a live mock crash.
Pioneer students performed a scene that illustrated the aftermath of a car crash using smashed vehicles donated by Milliron. Make-up was done by two artists from Kurtzman Institute of Art and a student from Pioneer. Members of the Shelby Fire Department, Shelby Police Department, Mansfield Emergency Medical Services, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and Life Flight also participated in the mock crash, and a hearse and casket were provided by Turner Funeral Home, as well.
The impact that the performance had on the students was evident.
“With every group, we had some students who cried. We had a student who passed away last year from drinking and driving and so for a lot of them it really hit home hard,” said Kessler.
Nickoli noted, “We typically host our spring prom very early in the school year because we don’t want it to conflict with our partner schools’ dances and unfortunately that usually means that our dance happens prior to the mock crashes that are in Richland County and Crawford County and we wanted our students to be able to partake in an event like this before our dance.”
Civay added, “Doing the mock crash before our prom impacts the students more and lets them know the effects of what could happen when you drink and drive.”
The Friday before their prom, Civay and Kessler are holding a re-cap of Thursday’s mock crash to reinforce the message they’re trying to convey, mentioned Civay.
In April, Civay and Kessler are presenting their project at a state competition with Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA).
“The girls really took the bull by the horns with this project,” said medical technologies teacher, Dawn Roberts.
Civay expressed her gratitude for all of the help both she and Kessler received. “Everyone has been very supportive from the start and we really wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of the support and help we’ve gotten.”
“Doing the mock crash before our prom impacts the students more and lets them know the effects of what could happen when you drink and drive,” said Chelsea Civay.
