| "Whoa! There goes baby!" exclaims one of a handful of youngsters watching a demonstration of the RCMP Rollover Simulator.
Quite apart from what one might expect from pre-teen attention spans, the 20 or 30 busloads of school kids attending Safety Expo 2003 are earnestly interested in safety. Or more accurately, what tragic end specifically befalls the unsafe. The simulator, a truck cab mounted on a rotating apparatus, is a hit. When set in motion, it effectively jettisons its unbelted riders – a family of padded dummies – out its windows.
Nearby on a small stage in front of rows of folding chairs, a man is giving a Powerpoint presentation on crime prevention through environmental design. "This slide involves a lot of technology," he jokes to an audience of three men – no kids here. "We have a guy hammering." Onscreen a construction worker on a building site robotically swings a hammer. The guy never so much as hits his thumb. Safety is all well and good, but the kids need to see outcomes.
Witness: a short time later a young woman and a man encased in blue foam padding take to the stage for a personal safety demo. Several dozen kids watch intently. For starters, what to do if grabbed from behind. "First I’ll do a groin strike," the woman explains, "and then I’ll elbow him." Two walloping elbows below the belt are followed by two to the padded helmet.
The woman emphasizes that the first, best objective when attacked is to run away, but the kids are still keen on seeing some punching and kicking. She has the blue man attack from the front. "Where do you think I should put my knee?"
"In the groin! In the groin!" the kids yell out. With a swift strike the attacker hits the floor heavily. "Oooooh!" the kids groan sympathetically. This effectively illustrates the first rule of child safety education: you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
When not provided with painful or tragic unsafe scenarios, the kids simply make up their own. Across the room another group is up in the back of a fire rescue boat used on the Bow River. "This boat can go on one-and-a-half inches of water," explains a fireman. Everyone turns to pose for snapshots. A small blond girl points at her comrades standing on the cement floor below. "You’re drownded. You’re drownded. You’re drownded." It may only be an inch and a half of imaginary water, but it’s really moving.
While no actual humans get to ride the Rollover Simulator, the RCMP Seat Belt Convincer is quite another story. Like a mini-midway ride, one is belted into a vinyl chair and then propelled to the end of the machine with a "ker-chunk!"
Ten year-old Jocelin has just experienced the Convincer. "It was sorta scary once you got on, but then once you got to the end and it went ‘bam,’ it was like all over so it didn’t really matter much, I guess you could say."
"How many times could you ride that in one day?" I ask.
"A lot."
Lindsie, also 10, is a regular seatbelt user, but thought she’d try the device anyway. "When we got on it was really freaky because when we saw other people, their head would like whiplash. So when I got on my head was like waving all around. Then when I got off I was sorta dizzy and everything. So yeah, it sorta hurts."
"How many times could you ride that in one day?" I ask.
"A lot."
Warren is a nine-year-old who has not yet ridden the Convincer. What does he think is the best part of Safety Expo? "So far it’s the spinning truck with the people falling out of it."
But safety is not just about re-creating body-mangling traffic accidents, no matter what Warren and I think. Sometimes it’s about flesh-charring electrical accidents. Today’s last word goes to Cara, a somewhat shy nine-year-old who thinks she’s a safe person. What safety tip will she remember when she goes home? "Not to put a ladder in the water with an electric drill."
Hmmm, I’m gonna have to rethink the removal of that hornets’ nest from over my swimming pool. Sheesh, who’d have thought this safety thing could be used by me? Thanks kids!
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