By Donna Fielder
The Denton Record Chronicle
DENTON COUNTY, Texas — Illuminated by intermittent flashes of emergency lights from ambulances, fire engines and squad cars, the scenes are familiar but no less horrifying: twisted metal, blood and the torn bodies of youngsters whose lives ended amid their screams and the screeching of tires.
Police officers, firefighters and paramedics are the first to arrive. It’s their job to sort the living from the dead and save those they can. They agree that the younger the victim, the harder it is to forget.
They see it often. But just because it’s common, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Emergency workers are subjected to traumatic stress from the sights, the smells, the screams of the injured and the sobs of survivors. In recent years, their departments have begun to recognize that and offer help.
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