School Features

When a blue tarp covering two wrecked cars was lifted, Kamiak seniors saw a horrifying scene:  One student lay strewn through a windshield, while other victims sat flailing in their seats, covered in blood and shattered glass.

Another car drove up to the wreck, and students in their prom dresses and tuxedos jumped out to check on the victims and call 911.

Within a minute, Mukilteo firefighters and police officers, and Snohomish Country Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene at the crash that left one dead, four injured and one in handcuffs.

The class of 2010 saw the devastating consequences of drinking and driving Thursday when students staged the mock car crash in the school’s parking lot.

The demonstration is presented annually by Kamiak’s senior class officers before prom weekend to warn seniors of the dangers of driving while under the influence.

“As seniors in high school, it’s kind of an impactful time in our lives because we’re going off on our own for the first time, and so we have to be able to be responsible,” McKenna McGowan said.  “That’s the message; to make the right decision to not drink and drive.”

 “It was creepy and scary to see what could happen when you get into an actual car crash,” Jeremy Morris said.

Firefighters worked quickly to rescue the victims. They first lifted McGowan from the hood of one car and then used the Jaws of Life to cut the roof off another and get inside to the others.

After senior Paul Bossert, as the drunken driver, failed field sobriety tests, he was arrested and placed in a police car.  McGowan was pronounced dead and covered with a sheet.

“I got really upset because those are my friends,” Rainey Rew said.  “I would hate to see my friends actually go through something like that.  I almost started crying.”

The senior class officers recruited teachers and students in Leadership and Drama to play the crash victims.

Megan Rucker, who also played a victim in the crash, said she had to keep reminding herself that the crash wasn’t real.

“I felt claustrophobic in there,” she said.  “I was like, ‘It’s fake; I’m going to be OK.  There’s glass in my pants and this is actually happening, but it’s OK because I’m not really hurt.’”

Pull A Part in Lynnwood donated the crash cars; local make up artist Linette Andres applied the victims’ gory makeup.

Katelyn Gallagher said the demonstration hit her in the heart because it was so realistic.

“It doesn’t look like acting when you’re watching it; it looks real,” she said.  “Megan and McKenna, [I’m] really good friends with them, and seeing them all cut up and dead is really serious for [me].”

As rescuers cleaned up the wreckage, the seniors went to the school gym for a student-run assembly. 

Guest speakers Lt. Rodney Rochon from SCSO, and Mary Loson, mother of a drunken-driving victim, spoke to students about the lasting effects of drinking and driving.

Loson told the story of how her son, Tim Waldbillig, an Edmonds-Woodway senior, was killed in 2003 due to drunken driving. 

Waldbillig was riding home with an intoxicated friend at 4 a.m. on Bothell Way Northeast, when police attempted to pull the car over.  Not wanting to get caught, his friend led the police on a high-speed chase, lost control of the car, slid up an embankment and hit a tree.

“I hope that somebody like me can get through to kids,” Loson said.  “I’m trying to keep [them] from ending up like [my son] … because it’s so needless.”