Student actors from the Dracut High School Drama Club participated in the mock crash. (Courtesy Dracut Fire Department)

DRACUT — Fire Chief Richard Patterson and Police Chief Peter Bartlett report that the Dracut Fire and Police Departments participated in a mock crash at Dracut High School on Friday morning.

As prom and graduation season approach, the police and fire departments teamed up with the Dracut High School Drama Club, Pridestar/TrinityEMS, Martineau’s Towing, and McKenna-Ouellette Funeral Home to present “Make a Date with Life,” an annual mock crash presented to high school seniors.

“This event is designed to allow students to have a front row visual representation of an emergency motor vehicle crash in a controlled setting,” said Dracut Fire Lt. Brian McCarthy, who organized the crash. “The event is not meant to scare the students. Instead it’s meant to bring awareness and dialogue to a topic that is often hard to drive home.”

Students from the Dracut High School Drama Club played the roles of both drivers and passengers involved in a motor vehicle crash between two vehicles donated by Martineau’s Towing. The Dracut Fire Department, Dracut Police, and Pridestar/Trinity EMS then worked together to respond to the crash as they would in a real scenario.

Dracut Firefighters used hydraulic tools to cut the roof off of one of the vehicles to free an entrapped occupant, and representatives of McKenna-Ouellette Funeral Home responded to take the body of a student who portrayed being dead.

A student actor takes a field sobriety test. (Courtesy Dracut Fire Department)

Dracut Police performed a field sobriety test on one of the students who portrayed a driver, and then arrested that student for operating under the influence and using a handheld device while driving.

“The distractions a driver can face on the roads and in their own vehicles is overwhelming. The amount of drivers and vehicles on the road has also increased and by default, so have the accidents,” said Lt. McCarthy. “We hope this event will make students slow down and take time to think about making good decisions. They’re all just starting their lives, and just one mistake can take it all away.”

EMTS Kara Zimmerman and Ali Benedict from Pridestar/Trinity EMS take one of the student actors away on a stretcher. Zimmerman and Benedict volunteered to take part in the event. (Courtesy Dracut Fire Department)

The Lo Kai restaurant also contributed to the event by providing parking for emergency vehicle staging. Dracut Firefighters who volunteered to take part in the event are Gage Brouillette, Dylan McCarthy, Ryan Charette, Brian Lantigne, and Kevin Bigold. On-duty firefighters who participated are Andy Poitras, Michael Petrilli II, Lt. Matt Silva, Lt. Brian McCarthy and Chief Patterson. Pridestar/Trinity EMS EMTS Kara Zimmerman and Ali Benedict also volunteered to participate.

“We have been doing this now for close to 20 years in conjunction with the police and school departments. Initially it was conceived as a drunk driving awareness platform, but today it has evolved to also focus on distracted driving,” said Chief Patterson. “Day in and day out we see crashes as a direct result of distracted driving. Technology has made it all possible, but it doesn’t remove the human factors from the equation.