Students were able to witness a drinking and driving accident on Tuesday, or at least the feeling of one.
Sorority members of Alpha Omicron Pi and Delta Zeta hosted a mock vehicle accident for National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, where students acted out a scenario of being involved with drinking and driving including a sober driver being killed.
Some of the organizations involved included the Fire Department, Ohio State Patrol, University police and Life Flight, which each served a role in the crash scenario.
Chapter President for Alpha Omicron Pi Corrine Smith helped coordinate the crash scene and said she feels proud to know students saw what could happen in a real life crash from even their closest friends.
“You always think that it can’t happen to you,” Smith said. “They all realize this is for college students and we’re all forced to face the choice to drink and drive every single weekend.”
The scene included students pretending to be drunk while driving and crashing their car into another. The sober driver ended up “dying” because of the accident. Police and the fire department then rushed to the scene with their sirens roaring. A helicopter was the last to arrive, including placing the body for a life flight.
Officer Matthew Conroy, of the University police, was the first to arrive during the scene and said it is important for this type of event to be hosted on the University.
“It’s very serious to not drink and drive and this will be an effect of the seriousness of the consequence of it,” Conroy said. “I think it will show a greater awareness of the whole situation.”
Sophomore Chelsea Burbridge acted as the deceased driver and said when being involved with the scene, she didn’t have to try and act because of how real it felt.
“As soon as my friend started freaking out when she got out of the car in the beginning I was ready to cry already,” Burbridge said. “It was very inspirational and definitely makes me want to never get in a car with a drunk driver.”
Sophomore Zack Shannon attended the crash scene because he wanted to support his friend involved with the acting. He said his feelings instantly changed about the mock crash because of how realistic it all was.
“It was all well played out,” Shannon said. “It puts things into perspective and you definitely don’t want to end up like any of these people.”
Among the volunteers for the event included Safe Communities Coordinator Sandy Wiechman who said, “We just need to make it real.”
“You think you’re buzz driving but you’re drunk driving,” Wiechman said. “We need to bring awareness to that and have everyone pledge to not [drink and] drive.”
