Substance abuse conference highlights risks

MOSES LAKE - The two vehicles hit with such force that one of them rolled and came to rest on its top. Emergency service workers were forced to extract one victim from the overturned car, and cut another victim out of the second car.

But for one of the victims it was too late. All that could be done was to call the Grant County coroner and unfold a body bag.

The driver who caused the accident walked away relatively unscathed - actually, "walk" was a relative term. The driver was under the influence of intoxicants, as a sobriety test indicated.

The was the story told by a mock DUI crash at Big Bend Community College Wednesday, part of the annual Community Partnership Against Substance Abuse program held Wednesday. A crowd of students watched the demonstration and listened to the emergency responders, police, fire and ambulance personnel, describe their roles and heard the police detail the charges that would be filed against the driver.

So the question is whether or not the demonstrations work.

It does show the students that see them the dangers of drinking and driving, said BBCC student Sergio Dyakov, of Moses Lake. But whether or not they think about the consequences of their actions when they're out partying is another question, he said.

Isaac Sanchez, of Moses Lake, a BBCC student, also was watching the demonstration and said it does give kids a look at the consequences. But he said he was skeptical that kids thought about consequences once the party started.

"Some laugh it off. Some take it seriously," said Josh Sainsbury, of the Grant County Sheriff's Office. While the sheriff's office has been involved in the BBCC program since it started, deputies expanded their program in 2011.

That came after a number of fatal accidents involving impaired drivers. "We lost eight (young people) in nine months," Sainsbury said. Since February 2011 the county has had three fatal collisions involving impaired drivers, he said. All three victims were 20 years of age.

Chris Kottong, Warden native and a trooper with the State Patrol said he thinks they work, and cited his own experience as proof.

When he was a student Warden High School held a mock DUI crash, and didn't announce it beforehand, Kottong said. It included a "funeral" for one of the most popular kids in school. "I had never even thought about something like that before," Kottong said.

The demonstration drove home "the reality that other kids do die and have died. 'Hey, I could lose friends,'" he said.