Aaron Smith’s body lays motionless on asphalt after being ejected from a two-vehicle collision.
The young man was a passenger and his drunken friend was driving.
His clothes are soaked in blood splotches as emergency crew members cover his body with a sheet just a few feet away from the twisted metal.
“Three black,” a Canmore firefighter yells, indicating three have died in the grisly sight.
The scene is staged, but the graphic message is real to young high school onlookers witnessing it unfold.
The Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) program returned to give hard lessons to Grade 9 Bow Valley students on the reality of careless decisions.
The sessions take place April 27-28 and May 3-4, and include presentations from RCMP speakers on road and traffic safety, victim services, staged scenarios of vehicle crashes and a tour of the hospital’s morgue.
“It’s important for them to realize, because a lot of kids think they’re invincible, they’re coming to that age where they’re just starting to drive and we want them aware of what can happen if they’re careless,” said coordinator Elizabeth Stirling.
The visual aspect of the crash staged in front of Canmore Hospital on Wednesday (April 27) offered a real look at the process RCMP, firefighters and EMS members undertake at a scene.
Grade 12 Canmore Collegiate students Selina Martineau and Sierra Morgan, who played victims in the accident, were once sitting where the onlookers are now.
“I remember doing it in Grade 9, as a student, and I remember it was a really powerful experience,” said Martineau. “I think the program itself is such an important thing for all the Grade 9s to see, so I like being a part of that.”
The PARTY program was started in 1986 by nurses at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital.
