Mt. Hope student ‘dies’ in mock crash

Crash staged as upperclassmen prepare for junior and senior proms

By Ted Hayes
Posted 4/26/18

Mt. Hope High School student Liam Bullard only had about 10 minutes to live when when his cell phone buzzed in class Thursday afternoon.

He checked his phone on the sly, raised his hand and asked …

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Mt. Hope student ‘dies’ in mock crash

Crash staged as upperclassmen prepare for junior and senior proms

Posted

Mt. Hope High School student Liam Bullard had less than 15 minutes to live when when his cell phone buzzed in class Thursday.

He checked his phone on the sly, raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom. The teacher nodded and went back to math.

Minutes later, Liam was out in the parking lot waiting for his buddy Jared Murphy, who’d blown off school but wanted to party. Jared, who had already been drinking, pulled up a few minutes later and Liam hopped in. As they pulled out of the lot, Jared gunned the vehicle, not seeing fellow student Ana Swansey as she drove around a corner toward them.

The collision killed Liam almost instantly. Critically injured, Ana was trapped in her sedan. Jared, who was uninjured, would be arrested moments later, charged with DUI and vehicular homicide.

The crash at M.t Hope High School Thursday wasn’t real, but it and a short film about Ana, Liam and Jared shown beforehand were staged to illustrate to high school juniors and seniors the dangers of impaired driving. The school’s Huskies News Network (HNN), student council and members of STAAND (Students Taking Action Against Negative Decisions) wrote the script, filmed the movie and staged the accident as they do every two years, presenting it to juniors and seniors just as upperclassmen prepare for their respective proms.

“They do a really good job,” said business teacher Brian Latessa, who helped organize the event. “The message is about making smart choices and being safe.”

Though organizers said nothing can truly convey the horror of an actual drunk driving fatality, the volunteers who helped stage Thursday’s demonstration worked to make it as realistic as possible.

Members of the Bristol fire and police departments were there in force, all playing their respective roles. The two cars used in the crash had been donated from Jack’s Auto Salvage in Bristol, and Warren’s current and retired fire chiefs were there to help out if needed. Hundreds of students watched from behind barricades, close enough to hear Ana’s moans from within her crumpled car.

It didn’t take rescue crews long to removeMr. Bullard's body from his friend Jared’s wrecked car. EMTs pulled it out, placed it on a stretcher, put a sheet over it and laid it off to the side in front of watching students.

It took longer to attend to Ms. Swansey, as crews had to use the Jaws of Life to cut away her car’s roof and doors to get at her. She was still alive when they extricated her, loaded her onto a waiting ambulance and sped away.

Meanwhile, police pulled a bottle of Patron tequila, Huckleberry vodka and Evan Williams whiskey out of the back seat of Jared’s car. Patrolman Timothy Gallison pulled him aside and ordered several field sobriety tests, which he failed. When the officer had seen enough he read Jared his rights, cuffed him and put him in the back of a waiting cruiser.

As the police car drove away, the demonstration ended and watching students slowly started filtering back to class. Organizers left Liam’s body where it lay as the students filtered back to class.

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.