Accident during EMS Week

What was supposed to be a week of activities promoting EMS Week was marred by a fatal car accident at Frontier Mall Thursday night.

Two vehicles - a van and a passenger vehicle - collided head on at an entrance road to the mall's parking lot. The incident took place around 7 p.m.

In briefing reporters at the scene, Jason Toovey of WPD Ambulance reported the driver of the passenger vehicle was not wearing a seat belt, and was thrown through the window and killed. Two passengers in her vehicle appeared to wear seat belts, he said, but both suffered spinal injuries and were taken to hospital on stretchers.

The driver, who was the lone occupant of the van, suffered minor injuries and was taken immediately into custody by the RCMP.

Both vehicles were heavily damaged with their front-ends smashed. It appeared the van lost a tire in the collision as well.

In addition to RCMP, the North Battleford fire department as well as EMS responders from WPD Ambulance were on the scene.

For members of WPD Ambulance, the incident interrupted what was supposed to be a week of educational activities in the community for WPD Ambulance.

In reality the accident itself was part of that education because as it turned out, it was all fake.

The "victims" were actually actors from John Paul II Collegiate's Students Against Drunk Driving group, who volunteered for the annual "mock accident" at Frontier Mall.

The first responders, though, were all real, as the event provided a chance for them to simulate what they would do in an actual emergency situation.

It was an important part of the educational activities of the week as WPD Ambulance showed off what emergency responders typically would do in their everyday jobs at an accident scene, as well as to send a message to people not to drink and drive - and hopefully prevent WPD Ambulance from having to respond in the first place.

"The whole point of the mock accident is to stop people from doing this so we don't necessarily have to come out and do these things," Toovey said.

The message WPD wanted to send during the week was to "just educate people that we're always out there ready to respond, and that we do more than just respond to calls. We do a lot of public education and things like that."

During the week, WPD representatives were in schools and in adult living facilities spreading their safety message and providing tips on what people could do when faced with an emergency.

Friday during noon hour, they also held their annual beef on a bun at WPD's headquarters, with the proceeds going towards KidsSport.

That will add to the total raised by WPD for KidSport from an EMS hockey tournament in April, so WPD expects to be able to make a sizable donation.