Arrive Alive: Fatal Alcohol Crash Scene a Lesson for Maple Valley and Enderlin High School

Students, staff and several area emergency agencies respond to a mock fatal alcohol crash scene for a lesson on how to arrive alive.

KVRR reporter and meteorologist Jason Cerjak and photographer John Hanson were also there to talk to students and first responders and we bring you their story in their own words.

“If you choose to drink and drive, it’s not always a law enforcement educational piece where you can be charged, you can be fined, you can be taken to jail. This is real life. So you hope that this does resonate…instills with them and is something they hold onto for the rest of their lives,” said Sgt. Tim Briggeman with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

“Today, we hope to stage a mock prom crash, where we have actors from the school, from Maple Valley. We’ll go out and set up in the field with a rolled over vehicle. We start bringing all of our responders in. We bring in Buffalo Area Quick Response Unit, Casselton Ambulance, F-M Ambulance, Cass County Sheriff’s Department, North Dakota Highway Patrol…the Coroner…and all the entities we would normally deal with on a regular accident,” said Chief Paul Tinjum of the Buffalo Fire Department.

“Just make smarter decisions and don’t put your life at risk and get in a car with a drunk driver and be responsible,” said student actor Erin Grieger.
 
Student actor Sarah Biggers adds, “I think it’s important because…you can sit teenagers down and tell them to not do this and not do that all you want, but I think when you see something eye-opening…it gives them more understanding of what can happen.”

Students from Maple Valley and Enderlin High Schools were in attendance.

The agencies who helped stage the accident and respond to the mock scene are Buffalo Area QRU, Tower City Fire Department, Casselton Ambulance, FM Ambulance, Sanford AirMed, the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Cass County Coroner’s Office.

Cass County first responders put on Operation Prom every four years.