By Joelyn Hansen

Last week Idaho Falls high school students learned about the affects of teen drunk driving.

Teens were randomly pulled from their classroom and were treated like they were dead. They were isolated and were allowed no contact with the outside world.

The week culminated with a mock DUI crash. Students watched as firefighters rapidly extricated victims from the wreckage as they tore apart cars. As a former journalist that covered multiple drunk driving accidents, the scenerio was as real as any real-life crash.

As I stood watching this mock DUI crash, I looked across at the many students standing on the sidewalk and wondered, "will this moment impact their decisions?" I certainly hope it does.

Back when I was in high school, a student was killed in a drunk driving accident after he was violently ejected from the car he was driving. He and another teen both left a party drunk and decided to borrow a friend's car for a joy ride. Speed, road conditions and his impaired abilities dangerously mixed causing the fatal crash.

In the days following this young man's death, fellow students made a make-shift memorial at the crash location, among the articles left in rememberance was a stack of beer cans. His friends said, "that's how he would have wanted to die." 

I imagine that that young man would have said differently and given a second chance would rather have made a different decision on that fateful night. I imagine that he would rather be living and experiencing life then buried 6-feet under.

I also imagine that the friend, who leant him the car, would have rethought giving him the keys to the car. The guilt he must carry now in his adulthood.

I hope teens every where understand the lasting affects of drunk driving, or even drinking under age. I hope teens let their desire to live affect their decisions to engage in risky behavior.

 By Joelyn Hansen

 I don't know Miss Teen Idaho Falls Ashley Traughber personally. But, I must say that in my limited interaction with her, I was impressed with her motivation and determination to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect.

Yesterday, in front of a small crowd gathered outside the Bonneville County Courthouse steps, 13-year-old Ashley urged everyone to help stop child abuse and neglect. Speaking from her own experience, Ashley spoke passionately about how people can make a positive difference in the life of a child if they just act.

Ashley's grandparents made a huge difference in her life when they took responsibility of raising her when her mother, a meth addict, couldn't properly care for her.

Ashley should be proud of what's she is doing!

April is Child Abuse and Neglect Awareness month. I hope that we will also heed Ashley's message and stand up for children everywhere. For more information about child abuse and neglect click on this link.

By Joelyn Hansen

Thursday afternoon I walked away from the 3-day exercise tired, dusty and elated that it was over. And I didn't have to do any manual labor! So, imagine what the others involved felt like.

The scenerio for the exericise was definitely worst-case scenerio. It started out as a routine warrant service at a house with police that escalated into finding a a meth lab and explosives to a partially collapsed house with three victims inside needing rescue. It was a great chance for interagency collaboration as the IFPD, Region 6 Hazmat, the Idaho Falls Regional Bomb Squad, Bonneville County Emergency Management, Idaho State Police, Region 3 Idaho Technical Rescue and Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security.

I was the acting public information officer. Or PIO as it's commonly referred.

When it was all said and done, there were a lot of comments about what went well and what needs to be fixed. The good news is that the majority consensus is that most everything went well.

One of the officers involved said he learned a lot. And I must say I learned a lot too. We have a lot of resources available to us in the event a real emergency occurs (let's pray that it we never have to utilize those resouces!). The second piece of good news is that agencies really do work well together when push comes to shove. And the last lesson learned is that we have some men and women with some great expertise.

By Joelyn Hansen

Here's a video (please be kind I'm attempting to learn some video editing software, so it's rough) featuring Chief Mark McBride. His message is geared toward vehicle burglaries.

This video is hopefully the start of many PSA (Public Service Announcements) that will come out of the chief's office.

Please watch and pass along the word!