Mock Crash Delivers Somber Lessons On DUI

Editor's Note: The photos that accompany this story show a mock fatal crash scene, complete with generous amounts of fake blood,  a corpse or two, smashed up cars and real police, fire and funeral personnel, resulting in images that some might find disturbing.

Lynnfield Police and Fire personnel teamed up with the school district and LHS drama club members on Friday morning to deliver a stark lesson about the consequences of drunk driving. 

With prom season right around the corner, the high school staged its first mock crash in recent memory, and all parties involved worked hard to make sure it was a convincing effort that got its point across.

Starting with two ruined vehicles, one of them a pickup truck donated by Firefighter Andrew Lyons, actors from the LHS drama club took their positions as accident victims and an impaired driver shortly before town rescue personnel arrived on the scene with their sirens running. There was even a hearse brought by the Conway Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home of Peabody. Looking on were about 300 members of the Lynnfield High School junior and senior classes.

"This indicates clearly how well we are working together," said Lynnfield's School Resource Officer Ray Barnes before the simulation, adding that students had also recently heard another presentation about drinking and drugs called "I Am Dirt," by John Morelli.

LHS Principal Robert Cleary said that this is the first time the school has done a crash simulation like this, at least during his ten years there. "What should be a time of celebration, we certainly don't want to turn in to a tragedy," Cleary told the students.

After police and fire personnel cleared the mock accident scene and made their simulated arrest, there was still more to come. The students then went inside to the LHS auditorium and watched a video put together the day before at Lynnfield Police Station showing LHS student Lucas Shaw "arrested" and processed, complete with a Breathalyzer test and phone call to his parents.

"It's a very valuable thing for our kids," said Lynnfield Superintendent Dr. Thomas W. Jefferson. "Teenagers often think it could never happen to them."