PFFG-IAFF Local 947

VIP For A VIP Provides "Shock Therapy" For Local Teens

The impetus for the VIP for a VIP program was a fatal car accident in 1998 involving two Northeast High School students who were skipping school. “I was on my way home from work when I heard the call come in on the scanner,” says Zimmerman, who was then at the rank of Firefighter II. The EMS unit on the scene of the accident was literally screaming for help. One of the students not wearing a seatbelt had been thrown through the front windshield and was pinned under the vehicle. Eventually a crowd gathered and was able to lift the vehicle off the student but it was too late. As an added twist, Battalion Chief Larry Cockman came upon the incident in shock, as the car was the same model as his daughter’s, who was also a Northeast student.

When Captain Steve Zimmerman talks about the VIP for a VIP program it becomes clear that his motivation is just as much frustration as it is a desire to prevent deadly car accidents involving teen drivers. He states, “We don’t want to go to anymore wrecks and have parents beating on our backs and screaming, ‘Don’t let my baby die!’”

Both Northeast graduates, Cockman and Zimmerman met later to discuss the incident. “We decided we wanted to get in the front side of the accidents,” explains the firefighters. “We wanted to look at vehicle extrication and rescue like we look at smoke detectors. We don’t know how often somebody has left a pot on the stove, forgot about it, and a smoke detector we’ve placed has gone off. The resident takes the pot off the stove and we never get called. It’s the same way with the VIP program. We don’t know how many accidents have been avoided because a teen went through the program and made the decision to not drink and drive, to put on a seatbelt, or not speed.”

Because Northeast has the highest fatality rate of any high school in Guilford County, the first Vehicle Injury Prevention for a Very Important Person (VIP for a VIP) program originated there in 1998 with the assistance of the Northeast Parent Teacher Association and the emergency service organizations of Guilford County.

This valuable program has since been presented all over the county and has been adopted by the Guilford County Fire and Life Safety Committee, a group that meets often to plan future events and presentations. The Guilford County School System has also copyrighted the program. This was not to prevent other groups from using it, but to ensure that if it was used, the program would be conducted in its entirety and as originally designed. The individuals involved feel that if the program is broken down and taken apart, the results will not be the same. Simply showing a video and calling it a VIP presentation, the message may be lost.

One would refer to the VIP for a VIP program as “shock therapy.” The morning session includes representatives of all divisions of emergency services in Guilford County, the NC State Highway Patrol, and recently the addition of speakers from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Students listen to the speakers and are presented with facts and figures on teen driving. The young drivers will also view a touching video from Allstate Insurance, and also see the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department’s eye-opening video entitled “Death of an Innocent”.

The afternoon session generally gets more attention. A mock car accident is set up involving a single vehicle and a utility pole. The driver is 17 years old, has been drinking, and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. The students see the emergency crews pull up just like a real incident, extricate the driver, perform CPR on the scene, and finally pull the sheet over the driver’s head. All the while, a narrator explains what the firefighters, law enforcement, and EMS personnel are doing. At the end the narrator verbalizes the driver’s final thought; “I can’t be dead, I’m only 17…” At this point the tension in the air is palpable. Students who were cutting up and talking during the morning session have shut their mouths and hopefully opened their ears to what the Guilford County emergency personnel are trying to tell them.

The VIP for a VIP program likes to visit with the schools preferably around homecoming, football season, or the Prom. The committee says, “We like to try to do four programs a year, hopefully visiting each school every three years. Sometimes we’re asked to come and sometimes we go knocking on doors.”