With lives on the line, Southwestern Michigan College’s Health Careers Day March 14 will unfold with a sense of urgency.

That’s because careers in criminal justice, fire science, nursing /CNA (certified nursing assistant) and EMS (emergency medical services)/paramedic will be demonstrated by real professionals from the SMC nursing faculty, Pride Care Ambulance, Dowagiac Fire Department, Dowagiac Police Department and MedFlight.

Memorial MedFlight lands a helicopter at noon on the Dailey Road parking lot of the Dowagiac campus, capping a morning of workshops for 100 students from northern Indiana and southwest Michigan.

Health professionals will conduct a simulation conceived around a two-vehicle crash caused by a high school student distracted by texting as he travels to a high school basketball game to watch a girl he met at the mall play.

He misses a stop sign and broadsides a vehicle carrying two other teen-agers, seniors who have been friends since first grade, with tragic consequences.

Students will see first-hand how police, fire and EMS vehicles respond to chaotic scenes and deploy their resources to extricate and transport the injured.

The gymnasium in the Charles O. Zollar Building will be turned into an emergency room where victims can be stabilized.