Glenvar High School students were the recipients of an important traffic safety reminder on Wednesday afternoon, September 28, just in time for homecoming celebrations.

A wrecked red Pontiac Sunfire, a motorcycle and seven theater students were staged with blood, bruises, gashes, and broken bones by the school’s drama department under the direction of Steve Franco.

Sergeant Tim Wyatt with the Roanoke County police and the Blue Ridge Regional Crash Investigation team emceed the event. Glenvar High’s Youth of Virginia Speak Out About Traffic Safety club helped coordinate the event as part of their “Save your Tailgate” traffic safety campaign.

Oft-repeated messages were highlighted like “don’t drink and drive” and “click-it or ticket,” but the most valuable message for the students, Wyatt said, is the visualization of the consequences of careless driving.

“If I came out here without a backdrop, would you remember me in three or four months? Maybe you’d remember it was traffic related,” Wyatt said in his introduction.

“Maybe this,” he said, gesturing to the gruesome scene splayed on the track, “is something you’ll remember.”

Glenvar High’s resource officer Brent Hudson was the first to arrive on the staged scene, where the story began after the Pontiac, donated to BRRCI by State Farm Insurance, failed to stop at an intersection and crashed into a motorcycle due to high speed and a delayed response due to the driver’s alcohol use. The motorcycle’s passenger was thrown to the hood of the car.

Next on scene were the Fort Lewis Fire Department and paramedics. They mock-called Life Guard 10′s helicopter for the driver of the motorcycle. Everyone in the car, except the driver, mock-died because they didn’t use seat belts. Officer Hudson questioned and mock-arrested the car’s driver. The paramedics mock-loaded the motorcyclist into the helicopter, and covered the mock-dead with sheets.

-Miranda Beck