By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
A bloodied young man puffed into a breathalyzer machine Tuesday morning while his friend lay dead atop the sedan that had wrapped around a tree.
A medical helicopter landed nearby, and workers dragged three other people out of the mangled car.
Apparently failing the alcohol test, an officer instructed the young man to put his hands on his head. Then he was cuffed.
The man, 20-year-old Catawba College student Caleb Terry, wasn’t drunk, and nobody died in front of the campus on Innes Street Tuesday.
A simulated car accident was part of National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week.
The message was a familiar one: Don’t drink and drive.
But the delivery of the message was the unique part.
“Sometimes they see things on TV, and it’s not a reality check,” said Omar Qureshi, a N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agent.
The ALE worked with the Rowan-Kannapolis ABC Board to conduct the mock wreck for Catawba students.
When young people see a wreck ó even a fake one ó their thoughts about drinking and driving can change, Qureshi said.
“It’s good to really show everybody what can happen,” said Terry, who is on Catawba’s lacrosse team.
Terry knows the pain first-hand that drinking and driving can cause. During his freshman year of high school, he said, his friend drove drunk and wrecked.
“He lived, but one of his best friends died,” Terry said.
The mock wreck included one fatality. The other four people in the car, including Terry, were injured.
Jamey Small, another Catawba student, played the role of the man who died. His body rested on the trunk of the Chevrolet Celebrity after he had gone through the back windshield.
Students Megan Spidell, Lexsa Turchin and Nicole Durant also played parts in the wreck.
Between 250 and 350 students turned up for the event, said Ben Smith, assistant director for residence life and coordinator of wellness and alcohol programs at Catawba.
To draw more students, the school served lunch outside.
Onlookers stood by as law enforcement officers removed a Bud Light case and a bottle of vodka from the car.
Then emergency workers cut off the roof of the car to get to the other “victims.”
The scene looked very real. The smashed car was donated by Crawford’s Garage in Salisbury. The helicopter came from Carolinas Medical Center. Even a hearse from Summersett Funeral Home pulled up for the deceased man.
Bonnie Cress, a paramedic and member of the Rockwell Fire Department, got creative to make the students appear injured and bloody.
She used fake blood from a Halloween store and grape jelly. Durant’s foot was crushed in the accident, so Cress covered it with sausage to make it look as grotesque as possible.
Mackenzie Westbrook, 18, a freshman at Catawba, stopped to see the mock accident on her way to class.
Westbrook said students need more alcohol awareness education. She said she’s not sure what young people need to hear to be convinced about the dangers of drinking of driving.
“Honestly, I don’t know, but I think students seeing more stuff like this couldn’t hurt,” Westbrook said.
Shane Flowe, director of public safety at Catawba, said the event was important to show students what can happen if they make bad choices.
Terry said after his friend caused a fatal accident in high school, he changed his thinking about alcohol.
“People look at this and say it will never happen to me,” Terry said. “But when it does one day, you will really regret it.”