The students from Manea Senior College were given an invaluable reminder about the dangers of texting while driving on Thursday morning courtesy of an emergency simulation.
A careless driver texting behind the wheel caused a multiple vehicle crash, leaving 12 casualties with injuries in his wake.
The College’s health and medical specialist program students sprung into action treating everything from head wounds, broken arms and legs, exposed intestines, spinal injuries, road rash and shock.
Students also provided CPR on crash text dummy who had been thrown through the car’s front window. He couldn’t be saved.
The remainder of the casualties, played by students from the Rural Medical School, were treated at the scene and transferred to waiting ambulances with the assistance of St John Ambulance staff and paramedic students.
Andrew, the driver during the simulation, was ‘arrested’ at the scene by police and taken to Bunbury Regional Hospital for a compulsory alcohol and drug screening.
He was later ‘charged’ with dangerous driving causing death and faces seven years behind bars.
While the injuries just looked real on Thursday, in the real world, it only takes a second of inattention for them to become very real, as the medical students well know.
Those in attendance were left with the message that two seconds of inattention behind the wheel is the same as driving blind for 33 metres.