Adrian College Students Demonstrate Mock Drunk Driving Accident

A group of students in Professor Pat Quinlan’s advertising and promotion management class will be putting on a mock drunk driving accident next Wednesday, Oct. 15. The event will take place in the Merillat Sport and Fitness Center parking lot from 4-5 P.M.

The class is participating in the 2008-09 National Student Advertising Case Competition developed by the American Advertising Federation. The sponsor for this year’s case is the Century Council, a group comprised of major manufacturers in the spirits industry with a mission of encouraging responsible drinking behavior. The ultimate goal of the $10,000,000 campaigns is to bring about a reduction in binge drinking on college campuses. The campaigns are being developed by AAF collegiate chapters across the country.

The group, which has developed and planned the mock drunk driving accident, hopes to bring awareness to the local campus community.

“We want to increase the awareness of binge drinking and its dangers on a college campus,” said group member Elysia Norris.

A “mock accident” is the recreation of an actual automobile accident including most of the physical and emotional outcomes. There are two objectives of this event. The first is to allow the group to pretest the potential effectiveness of this communication tool as part of a national campaign strategy. Second, this group believes that our campus community would benefit from the sobering effects of a well-staged mock accident.

The Adrian City fire and police departments and Lenawee Ambulance and rescue team as well as Life Flight will be on hand acting as if the accident were real. Two cars, which are being donated from a local junk yard, will be positioned in the scene of an accident. Five “actors” who are other Adrian College students will act as the victims. One car will contain a drunk driver and passenger and the other car will contain three victims.

The fire department will cut open one of the vehicles. One victim will die at the scene, one will be lifted in Life Flight, and one will be carried to the ambulance. The driver will also be arrested at the scene. The group of students putting on this mock accident includes Elysia Norris, Ray Knox, Rob Magyar, Mark Eberline, Kate Walsh, and Jenna Kloster. The students will narrate the story as it is happening and afterwards they will talk to the crowd about the effects and statistics of binge drinking and drunk driving.

All students and community members are encouraged to attend. This event is free and open to the public. Donuts and juice will be provided to all spectators. Further information about this event may be obtained by contacting Professor Pat Quinlan at pquinlan@adrian.edu.