By Patti Jares, Staff Writer

As the crowd gathered on the Wickenburg High School parking lot Thursday (April 19) the smoke was clearing from a fatal accident scene, revealing two pickup trucks that had collided head on. Three teens were trapped inside one truck and the victims in the other had been thrown out, one laying in the pickup's bed and the other on the ground, partially underneath the cab. It was a gruesome sight as the Wickenburg Police Department, Department of Public Safety, Wickenburg Fire Department and Lifeline Ambulance Service converged on the scene.

Fortunately, this was staged - it was a mock disaster drill and the crowd gathering was Wickenburg High School students and staff. The plans for the drill had been hidden from the students; even the staff was kept in the dark, only told that something was in the works at the end of the week. Some thought it had something to do with the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

The badly crushed trucks had been brought to the parking lot and accurately positioned. The “victims” were G.P. Selvaggio, Jessica Hurd, Ryan Riggs, Sarah Katie Wood, and Matt Neidick, Gatehouse residents who were placed in and around the vehicles. Right before the students were brought to view the accident, a flare was set off in the midst of the scene; the billowing smoke adding a chilling effect.

The agencies accurately “rescued” victims with “Jaws of Life,” and even pronounced one girl dead. A fireman sprayed the surrounding ground with a fire hose, normally to prevent a fire or a “brown-out,” caused by a landing helicopter.

The injuries were applied with stage makeup by three women who were all too familiar with similar injuries: Robin Anglin, Diane Allegra, and Laura Lind.

Anglin and Allegra are emergency room nurses at John C. Lincoln Hospital Deer Valley; Lind is a former Wickenburg ambulance first responder. All three women provide education to paramedics, nurses and doctors on treating accident victims.

“The injuries are absolutely realistic,” said Anglin. “We do it for the shock factor.”

The drill was spearheaded three months ago by Wickenburg High School Principal Tom Newton, who approached High School Security Officer Reuben Madrid with the idea.

“I coordinated it with the appropriate agencies,” said Madrid. “Then I called Tom and told him how it was going down.”

The drill was planned at this time of the year to make an impression on Wickenburg High School students before Prom night.

“”This will be fresh in their minds,” said Police Aide Tammy Hankins, “and it will hopefully keep them from drinking and driving.”

When all of the “victims” were either pronounced dead, arrested (the driver of the truck was DUI) or rescued and transferred to Wickenburg Hospital, the students were brought into the Dell Webb Auditorium where the main speaker was Sharon Sikora.

Sikora is with the Arizona chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) in Glendale, and had been burned over 90 percent of her body when she was involved in an accident with a drunken driver.

“This really makes them think twice about choices they make,” acknowledged Lind. “It's a crying shame when you arrive at the scene of an accident and have to pick a kid off the ground.”