Fire - News

Mock Car Crash/DUI Scenario at Ironwood High School

The Glendale Fire and Police Departments along with Southwest Ambulance teamed up with Ironwood High School to show the impact of bad decision making and to raise awareness of driving under the influence on Friday, May 09, 2008.

The mock scene took place at the Ironwood football field in front of over 1,000 students. The scenario was a two car collision at a nearby intersection. In one car, an Ironwood school teacher who was driving home to be with her family after working late on a Friday night.  The second car contained four high school students driving from one party to another while under the influence of alcohol.

The scenario continues, when the school teacher stopped at a red light and was hit head on by the group of high school students after they ran a red light. The school teacher was badly hurt and required treatment and transport by Glendale firefighters to a trauma center with an air ambulance (HALO-151). Glendale Firefighters and Southwest Ambulance Crews treated the four students which were all badly injured with one student not surviving the crash. The driver was the high school quarterback and went from a full ride athletic scholarship to being in the middle of a crime scene.

As the scenario continued, the audience received a play by play announcement of what was going on by Glendale Fire’s Daniel Valenzuela and Sergeant Joe Turitto of the Glendale Police Department. Both gentlemen shared a microphone as they gave their thought on how this will affect all of those in the scenario including each victim, their friends and families.

“This is a scene that is far too common not only in the city of Glendale but throughout the Valley, said Daniel Valenzuela, Glendale Firefighter. “Hopefully this scenario will cause each of these young men and women to make the right decisions as they end their school year and enjoy their summer vacations,” Valenzuela added.

“As police officers, we have a zero tolerance for drinking and driving,” said Joe Turitto, Glendale Police Sergeant. “We are just hoping the right decisions are made because it saves lives,” Turitto continued.

“I hope this scenario teaches the students of the harm of drinking and driving,” said Heather Thompson of Southwest Ambulance.

In Arizona there are 140,000 car collisions each year, 68,000 injuries and 1,500 fatalities. Over 370 of these fatalities are people under the age of 20. There were 40 fatalities in the City of Glendale last year.