Massachusetts State Police collaborated with the Northwester District Attorney’s Office and several local police departments this past May to host a training exercise at the Hampshire Regional High School in Westhampton. Using physics and mechanics officers taught teenagers about driving accidents and the consequences of driver’s actions.

Officers used a new teaching aid called the “Crash – The Science of Collisions” using what the teenagers have and will be learning in their physics classes. While teaching teenage drivers about the physics behind a crash, officers taught students about the cause and effect of driver’s actions. Troopers from the State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section replicated characteristics of an accident in the Hampshire Regional High parking lot. From the staged crash statistics were given for students to analyze and evaluate.

The motivation behind this exercise was to raise awareness levels to decrease the number of future crashed by teen drivers. The hope is with this training & realization of the physics and mechanics behind a crash, students will be more safe and aware drivers.

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety & Security other participants included: Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel and Assistant District Attorney Curtis Frick; Westhampton Police Chief David White and Sergeant Floyd Fisher; Williamsburg Police Acting Chief Denise Wickland; Goshen Police Chief Jeffrey Hewes; Chesterfield Police Corporal Aimee Wallace; and Southampton Police Officer Scott Gove.