Collegiate Times

Participants in Thursday's emergency response demonstration remove a model victim from a car.

As some students played Ultimate Frisbee on the Drillfield during one of the first sunny days this semester, others practiced saving lives.

The Virginia Tech Rescue Squad and the Blacksburg Fire Department hosted a training exercise Thursday night on Drillfield Drive that simulated a head-on crash caused by a drunk driver.

The two goals of the exercise were to provide the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad with experience assessing a major accident and to educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving, said second Lieutenant training officer Chris Rossi.

“We just want to make people aware,” he said.

About 50 Virginia Tech Rescue personnel along with about 25 Blacksburg Fire employees participated in the exercise, which lasted for roughly an hour. Rossi said the event took about two months to plan.

Two partially destroyed cars with live “victims” were placed at the end of Drillfield Drive, positioned to mimic a head-on crash. When the call was given over a closed-circuit dispatch, two fire trucks, two ambulances and three SUVs replied to the scene.

After assessing the patients’ conditions and extracting them from their cars via the roofs, one was taken away in an ambulance and the Carilion Clinic Life Guard helicopter was dispatched for the other, although the live “victim” was not actually placed inside the helicopter.

Spectators were able to listen to the dispatch calls through speakers located near the perimeter of the crime scene. Rescue squad members occasionally narrated to the audience what kinds of actions emergency medical technicians were taking as they assessed the situation and stabilized the patients.

Many of the spectators were students of an EMT training class offered by Virginia Tech, like freshman biology and pre-med major Valerie Wolf.

“I would like to be able to save people’s lives,” Wolf said.

Students of that class were required by their professor to attend the simulation.

Rescue squad president Jeffrey Russin said hosting the simulation was a good way to involve the larger Tech community in what the rescue squad does.

Part of those capabilities includes a partnership with the Carilion Clinic Life Guard medical helicopter unit.

Robert Youher, who works with the Life Guard helicopter, was on-site during the training exercise to help coordinate and monitor the helicopter’s landing in the grass near the Duck Pond on West Campus Drive.

“We have a great partnership with VT Rescue,” Youher said.

Life Guard will frequently assist the rescue squad with covering the campus area during the holiday season.

Susan Smith, who also works with Life Guard, said it is important for VT Rescue to practice working with the helicopter unit so procedures will flow smoothly in the event of an actual emergency.

“It takes 40 minutes to drive to the nearest trauma center, but only about 15 to get there by helicopter,” Smith said.

Youher said Life Guard had been called to the Blacksburg area about five times in the past year.

Virginia Tech Police reported 54 cases of persons driving while under the influence of alcohol in the past year.

Although Smith estimated operating costs for the helicopter at around $2,000 per hour, the unit participated in the training event free of charge due to Carlilion’s support of the rescue squad’s activities.

“There’s a great training ethic with the Tech squad,” Youher said.

He said the Life Guard squad also conducts a classroom style with VT Rescue to train them on working together with the helicopter staff.

Rossi said the entire event cost a little under $250.

VT Rescue members like senior biology major Elizabeth Rogers appreciated the opportunity to practice their skills in a non-emergency situation and demonstrate tov the public the realities of drunk driving.

“You can watch what we do on YouTube, but seeing people getting pulled out is different,” she said. “You have the potential to hurt someone.”

Russin said the rescue squad enacted the same training event in 2009.

“We’re trying to make it annual,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for people to realize the dangers when alcohol and driving are combined.”

Any interested Tech student can join the squad. For more information, students can visit rescue.vt.edu or search for the squad on Facebook.

A version of this article appeared in the Mar 5 issue of the Collegiate Times.