'Real life consequences' of substance abuse
Firefighters and EMTs surround Crystal Mertes, Moses Lake, one of four 'victims' in a mock car crash staged during the Community Partnership Against Substance Abuse May 3.
MOSES LAKE - A Big Bend Community College student had a question for Barbie Maier, a first responder and veteran of a number of crashes involving people driving under the influence of intoxicants.
"Have you ever drank and drove?" he asked
"Yes, I did. When I was young. I don't drink and drive now," Maier said. "It's one of those things that we learn. Thank God I learned it from other people, and not from people I love."
Maier recounted some of those lessons to students and residents attending the Community Partnership Against Substance Abuse on Thursday at the college.
There was the mother who tried to drive home after a party, the 18-year-old who was on a camping trip and made a snack run back to town and the 20-year-old who had a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, Maier said.
The mom wrapped her car around a tree at 80 miles an hour. Her daughter, "not quite four years old," was killed. "The last thing Mom remembers is the tree, her daughter's blond hair and a bunch of blood," Maier said.
The 18-year-old lost control and rolled his truck, and his passenger was ejected. "He ended up in the bottom of a creek bed. Dead," Maier said. The driver had been planning on college. "He didn't go to college. He went to jail," Maier said.
The 20-year-old drove off the road and hit a mailbox, Maier showed a picture of the aftermath. "Up here is where a mailbox post went through her head," she said.
Erika Simmons, of the Central Basin Traffic Safety Task Force, said the idea is that real-world examples have an impact.
"Of course 'do not drink and drive' is out there," Simmons said. But with real-life stories "we try to really make it come home," she said.
"It's a lot more impactful because it's the responders' stories," said Ryann Leonard, criminal justice and psychology instructor at the college. Simmons and Leonard were the conference organizers.
"At least one person each year is significantly impacted by this," Leonard said. "They've said, 'I'm changing my behavior because of what I heard.'"