Okaihau students play dead for a day
Forty students killed by drink-drivers and a serious crash on the school grounds made for a horror week at Okaihau College.
Fortunately, the deaths and the crash were not real but part of an awareness week at the Far North school organised by Students Against Driving Drunk.
The week's activities included competitions, videos and a "Dead Day" with close to 40 students spending the day dressed in black to represent the young people killed on New Zealand roads each year as a result of drink-driving. Each wore a sign describing how they "died".
To cap off the week, a mock car crash was staged on Friday.
Student actors Connacht Lawrence and Leah Hamlin were driver and passenger in a car which had slammed into a pohutukawa tree on the school grounds; the rest of the school watched as St John Ambulance, Kaikohe police and Okaihau Fire Brigade worked to extract and save the "victims".
Three Okaihau College students - Brian Corr, Taylor Adkins and Scott Flood - are current brigade members and took part, with Brian operating the jaws of life to cut the car open and free the patients.
Principal Alan Forgie said: "If this affects one child enough to make them say no to hopping in a car with a drunk driver, then it was well worth the effort."
