Street Smart kicks off Kadena's 2013 Critical Days of Summer

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Lauren Snyder
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Kadena Airmen recently attended Street Smart, a seminar focused on preventable vehicular injuries and death, at the Keystone Theater.

The briefing was the kick-start to the 2013 Critical Days of Summer.

Before Street Smart, the 18th Wing safety office opened the presentation with statistics and stories of Kadena's fatalities, along with words of caution.

"Last Critical Days of Summer, the Air Force lost 16 Airmen to preventable mishaps," said Lt. Col. Robert Reed, 18th Wing chief of safety. "Kadena lost two Airmen in January (2013), one on-duty and one off-duty. Both of the mishaps that happened on base would be what we would call preventable, because they were both the result of distracted driving. You see people talking on their cell phone or texting, which isn't allowed on Kadena. And having your phone on speaker isn't hands free."

The Street Smart seminar was then led by a team that travels across the world to educate and inform service members and civilians on how bad driving decisions lead to severe consequences. The brief was directed at Airmen in grades O-1 to O-3 and E-1 to E-6 to educate them on how to prevent future vehicular tragedies.

"We're going to give you information on whether it's a good idea on driving as a distracted driver, whether by reading texts, playing Angry Birds or Words with Friends, or checking your email," said Vince Easevoli, Street Smart presenter and executive director of Florida Stay Alive From Education Inc. "The majority of car crashes that we see today are the result of a distracted driver."

The presentation included with graphic and explicit videos and photos depicting collisions and bodies.

"Those pictures that you saw all have something in common: in every one of those pictures, drugs and/or alcohol were somehow involved and they weren't wearing their seatbelts," said Oscar Duran, also a Street Smart presenter from Florida S.A.F.E. Inc. "If you notice, most of the people were in this trauma age group (in the theater now). What all these pictures have in common is that every single person is dead. Sad thing is that it didn't have to happen - they were all preventable."

One by one, Easevoli and Duran argued common reasons people don't wear seatbelts.

Some people don't wear their seatbelt because they aren't traveling far, but Duran explained most accidents happen in close proximity to home at speeds less than 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour).

Other people place too much faith in the technology of their car, but Easevoli explained how limited airbags are in an accident: only deploying in certain types of impact, only expanding once when many accidents involve multiple impacts, and they are only effective when used in conjunction with seatbelts.

Additionally, cars are designed to crumple to soften the impact of a collision, but it only benefits passengers if they remain in the vehicle; otherwise, they would be thrown from the vehicle at whichever speed the car was traveling at the time of impact. Together, Easevoli and Duran explained how susceptible large vehicles are to roll-overs and that large windows create more area to be expelled in case of impact.

They also scoffed at television's portrayal of car explosions in movies and shows, instead warning that cars do catch on fire and wearing a seatbelt would allow passengers to be conscious after impact and allow escape.

"First of all, most importantly, a seatbelt will keep you in the vehicle so that you aren't ejected," Easevoli said. "Secondly, if worn properly, seatbelts are going to cause the (force of impact) to go across the upper portion of your chest and across your hips and proportionally distribute the force of impact. Thirdly, which people don't think about but we see all the time, the seatbelt can actually help keep the driver in control of the vehicle in minor crashes."

Easevoli and Duran created a scenario of an Airman returning to the states and having a good time at a party held in his honor, only to be called by a fuming wife wanting him home. Instead of getting a designated driver or taxi, he drove his car, only to be distracted by texts from his wife. The next thing he knew he had collided with another vehicle.

The presenters outlined the three ways emergency responders find collision victims. The passengers could be dead on arrival, wounded and unconscious, or awake and wounded. They then outlined the pain and suffering that accompanies a collision, including wounds, diagnosis, surgery, therapy, amputation or paralysis, and even after all that, being held accountable for the death of the other passengers involved in the collision.

Easevoli closed the seminar with statics to illustrate the unfortunate commonness of distracted driving and its impacts. Every five seconds there is a car crash in the United States. Every 14 seconds, someone is injured in a car wreck. And every 12 minutes, someone dies in mostly preventable circumstances.

"One out of 100 will die from injuries," Easevoli said to the approximately 850 service members in the theater. "Six to 10 people out of 100 will suffer a debilitating injury such as permanent scarring, disfigurement, losing a limb, or being paralyzed. You do the math."