Reality check

On Thursday, students near Kerr-Drummond got a Reality Check.

The event, which featured the exhibition of a staged car accident, was geared to raise awareness of drunk driving and the consequences associated with it. Sharayah Carpenter, Reality Check director said if one person decides against drunk driving because of the event, then Reality Check was a success.

The event has run for 10 years, Carpenter said, and is possible thanks to support from OSU and the Stillwater community in means of time and monetary donations.

The accident was set up, vehicles and victims, in the Mezzanine of Kerr-Drummond. Before emergency responders were sent to the scene, those in attendance listened to two frantic 9-1-1 calls that were set up in association with OSU Police.

Once the recordings had finished, the scene outside was set into motion. Emergency vehicles, including police cruisers, a fire truck, an ambulance and even a hearse from Strode Funeral Home rushed to the scene, sirens blaring.

After the actors portraying bloody victims were taken care of and the scene was secure, everyone gathered around Sergeant Kevin Parton of the Oklahoma City Police Department as he gave a speech wrought with his personal experiences and surprising statistics.

"The scene was pretty tame in my experience, I responded to fatality only accidents for four years and many of them were alcohol related and many were much more graphic than this." Parton said.

Officer Colt Chandler, first responder to the mock scene sees the event as "a great opportunity for us to not only to educate the public on the dangers of drunk driving, but a great chance for the emergency responders to experience what it is like to respond to a fatality accident."