BETHEL – Telstar Regional Middle/High School will host a distracted driving workshop from 8 a.m. to noon April 25 with the assistance of Bethel Rescue, Bethel Fire Department, Maine State Police, Oxford County Emergency Management Agency and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.
Crystal Aylward, administrative assistant for the Oxford County EMA, said the workshop will be “a test run” of sorts for each department, because this will be the first time they have had a series of stations with which students can interact.
“We did one of these workshops before, but without the stations,” Aylward said. “It gave the students a chance to talk to the cops about distracted driving, and afterward, we did a PowerPoint presentation.”
This year, students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of interactive challenges that will testify to the importance of not driving while distracted, Aylward said.
Among the challenges are using beer goggles, taking field sobriety tests and participating in “the seat belt challenge.”
“Sgt. Doug Maifield came up with this idea,” Aylward said. “The idea of the challenge is to split the kids into two teams of four and have them race to see which team can have all of its members buckle themselves into each seat at least once.”
Aylward said the idea of the challenge was to show students “how easy and quick it is to buckle your seat belt.”
The workshop will also include a presentation called “Choose Your Ride,” which Aylward said will act as a visualization of the effect distracted driving.
“We’re going to have an ambulance, a hearse, a police cruiser and possibly a LifeFlight helicopter,” Aylward said. “We’ll be telling the story of a crashed car, and ask the students afterward to think twice about distracted driving before they end up on one of these rides.”
Aylward said that more distracted driving workshops may be held in the future.
“Since this is a test run, whether or not we do this again falls to the students,” Aylward said. “If we get a good reaction, we’ll try and bring this to more schools.”
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