The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
It is often difficult to shock todayâ??s youth, but Fran Labarre has found a way â?? and a good reason. As organizer of the Northern Health Regionâ??s PARTY program, she takes teens on a mock journey through the very real devastation wrought by distracted driving. â??You have to hit them on the emotional level. Theyâ??re not interested in stats,â?ù says Labarre. â??Weâ??re trying to make an impact. Itâ??s not just, you text and drive and hit someone, itâ??s â??oops.â?? Itâ??s not an oops.â?ù PARTY â?? which stands for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth â?? involves Grade 10 students from throughout the Flin Flon region. It begins with a staged car collision not far from the hospital. An actor portrays the distracted driver who caused the crash as RCMP, firefighters and paramedics respond just as they would in real life. Thatâ??s an eye-opener in itself, but the students also tour the hospitalâ??s emergency room and, for further effect, the morgue. â??Girls cry and boys faint, every year,â?ù Labarre says. Students also visit the physiotherapy department and watch videos of car crashes. And they listen to the real-life stories of accident survivors and their loved ones. While the word â??alcoholâ?ù is part of the acronym, Labarre says PARTY participants tend to be well educated around the dangers of drinking and driving. But other forms of distracted driving â?? texting, talking on a cellphone, eating or putting on makeup â?? can be just as hazardous. â??Itâ??s distracted driving that my message tries to hit on the hardest, that you cannot drive a car well and be distracted,â?ù says Labarre. â??Nine out of 10 crashes are preventable and caused by people taking risks.â?ù PARTYâ??s unrelentingly realistic tactics may not always make students comfortable, but Labarre says parents are all for this sort of approach. PARTY ran five sessions last month: two for Hapnot Collegiate and one each for Creighton Community School, Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage and Joseph H. Kerr School in Snow Lake. Partners in the program include the RCMP, firefighters, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and the hospital. Across Manitoba, PARTY is sponsored by MPI and the Manitoba Brain Injury Association.
