The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
RECONSTRUCTING AN ACCIDENT
An unexpected crash happens during demonstration
A staged crash investigation turned into an actual investigation May 2 when the Lorain Police Department crashed some cars at Lorain High School.
The crash was part of a safe driving initiative of the police department and Lorain Schools in preparation for prom season.
While many schools simply park a busted car on its front lawn in an effort to give students a visual reminder of the dangers of drunk driving, the police department decided to use the lesson to teach the Lorain High School Police Explorers about crash reconstruction.
The lesson started as planned after the school was dismissed and the students in the explorers program were well out of the way of any action. Lorain police officer Kyle Gelenius drove a junked Nissan Altima into a life sized dummy.
While the students looked on from across the parking lot, Gelenius struck the blue dummy, wearing a black Lorain police baseball cap, on the passenger side of the car’s hood.
"You never know what to expect in crashes. They were able to see a crash, just not the one they planned."
— Lorain police officer Kyle Gelenius
The dummy, which was built to be comparable to a human body, rode the hood briefly before falling beneath the front passenger wheel.
Students then were given the task of measuring skid marks on the pavement, the resting position of the dummy and where the hat
landed.
Gelenius walked the students through how inertia affects the location of the pedestrian, in this case a dummy, and their effects, in this case the hat.
Once the scene was processed, the officers set up the next staged crash.
This time, rather than put an officer’s safety at risk, the Altima was strapped to the department’s dive truck with the intention of pulling it so that it would hit a
junked Mercury Sable.
The students were moved even further from the action, and an officer began pulling the Altima toward the Sable.
Once the Altima started moving, the strap slipped beneath the tires of the Sable giving the Altima more freedom of travel.
The Altima barely clipped the bumper of the Sable before ultimately crashing into a tow truck belonging to Ernie’s Towing,
which was used to bring the junked car to the lot.
Reviewing a video taken by The Morning Journal, a female can be heard after the crash asking, “Wait a minute, was that supposed to happen?”
“Nope!” a male voice can be heard replying.
Lorain police Officer Jake Morris said the students were never in any danger, as the officers were prepared for this possibility.
“We cordoned off the area
quite well, made sure everyone was well out of harm’s way while watching the actual demonstration,” Morris said. “We’ve been out here since 11:30 a.m. just ensuring that the area was safe.”
Morris said the police department insisted no students or personnel would be anywhere near where they could be harmed.
Gelenius said the crash didn’t go as expected, but that was part of the lesson.
“You never know what to
expect in crashes,” he said. “They were able to see a crash, just not the one they planned.”
Carter Muniz, 15, of Lorain, a freshman at the school, said he thought the experience was “crazy.”
“I thought it would be louder,” Carter said.
He said he believed there would be more debris flying all over the parking lot.
“I was glad we were a good distance away,” Carter said.