Mock crash shows teens real tragedy
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Ashley Robinson, 18, the president of Students Against Destructive Decisions at Evans High School, plays the part of a victim during a mock accident at the school. The demonstration stressed the dangers of drunken driving.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Ashley Robinson lay covered and bleeding on the hood of a car that had crashed - the result of a driver being drunk.
She stopped breathing. Her heart stopped beating. She died as her classmates at Evans High School watched with their eyes and mouths agape.
"I can't be dead, I'm only 18," Robinson said on a taped narration that played as first responders placed her in a body bag for all students to see.
The Wednesday crash was just a mock wreck, but its purpose was to seem as real as possible in an effort to curb teen drinking and driving.
"Even though you know it's a dramatization, even though you know it's fake, I looked at it and thought about it like, 'What if this really happens?'" said Robinson's boyfriend, senior Stephen Dominy, 18. "This could really happen, and I think some kids don't take it seriously enough."
Robinson, the school's Students Against Destructive Decisions, or SADD, president, portrayed a teen killed as a passenger in a car driven by a drunken driver.
Other SADD members also played parts in the dramatization. The group planned the mock wreck just in time for the prom- and graduation-party seasons, which extend through the summer, said Capt. Sandra Culver, of Gold Cross Emergency Medical Service, who helped organize the event.
Seniors are somber as they watch emergency personnel respond to the mock accident.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
The scene, staged on the school's football field, included a lifelike recreation of a wreck with the help of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue, Gold Cross Emergency Medical Service, AirMed and the Columbia County Coroners Office.
April through June is typically seen as a time of celebration. But officials said one bad decision can result in tragedy.
"They (teens) think they are invincible, they honestly do," Culver said. "These kids don't think this can happen to them. And whenever it happens to one of their friends, it kind of wakes them up a little bit."