ASHLAND — Required senior projects at Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center recently took a serious turn with a message for all students.
For their senior project, Megan Marker and Danielle Hicks, Ashland seniors in the Health Technologies program, put together a mock-crash scenario as they sought to bring distracted/unsafe driving and its consequences to the attention of their peers.
“Driver” Malorie Kinney (Clear Fork) and Emily Dalton (Hillsdale) consoled each other at the “accident scene” while “victim” Cali Cochran (Clear Fork) was seen laying atop the car and Hope Shearer (Ashland) spoke with rescue personnel from the back seat of the second vehicle.
The crash, staged in front of the school right before Thanksgiving break, was a complex undertaking with Marker admitting, “Getting everyone involved and coordinated was a lot of work.”
Teachers portrayed distraught parents at the accident scene while other Health Tech students posed as crash “victims” who were attended by emergency personnel from the Mifflin, Hayesville and Jeromesville fire departments. Investigating the accident were officers from the Ohio Highway Patrol and the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department.
Support was also given by a Metro Life Flight helicopter, Gil’s Auto Repair & Salvage, Ashland Coroner’s Office and Fickes Funeral Home in Jeromesville. A sobering moment came when the guilty “driver” was arrested, handcuffed and led to the Patrol cruiser. Following the accident scene wrap-up, students were directed into the school and passed by a memorial to honor the “deceased” victim.
“I am so proud of all of my health tech seniors and juniors,” said Health Technologies instructor Amanda Young. “They did such great work pulling this off. I would like to thank everyone involved.”
