Shattered Dreams Plainview Texas 4-23-2007

Students get dose of grim reality 04-24-2007Story By LEZLI GANDYScanners all over town went off around 10:15 a.m. Monday, and listeners heard the words "Major 10-50 at 13th and Raleigh."Arriving on the scene, city police officers, sheriff deputies, state troopers, firefighters and EMS personnel came upon two vehicles: a green Ford Explorer and a green Geo Metro. Cassie Hughes, a passenger in the Explorer, was frantically running from vehicle to vehicle trying to wake up passengers from both cars.Local police officers and EMS personnel were first on the scene and began to assess the levels of injuries. Mark Hernandez was ejected from the Metro and lay sprawled on the hood of the car. Caitlyn Gilleland was unconscious with massive bleeding from her head in the driver's seat of the Explorer. Melody Foster and Kirk Quebe, both backseat passengers in the Metro, were trapped and had to be removed with the Jaws of Life. They were transported to Covenant Hospital Plainview with major injuries. Russell Julian, a backseat passenger in the Explorer, was transported by AeroCare with major injuries. Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Kaye Phillips, and Gilleland later died of head injuries at Covenant Hospital Plainview.Leakay Adams, the driver of the Metro, was handcuffed and taken to the Hale County jail after failing a field sobriety test.While the scene seems very graphic, the most unusual part was the entire junior and senior classes of Plainview High School who were watching as the scene played out. Thankfully, it wasn't a real accident but part of the Shattered Dreams program.Two years after the first one, the event was scheduled purposely two weeks before the Plainview High School Junior-Senior prom to encourage students to make the right choices involving driving and alcohol. Throughout the rest of the day, the "Grim Reaper" walked the halls of PHS, removing pre-selected students from class every 15 minutes and reading their obituaries out loud. That process symbolized the statistic that a person is killed in the U.S. every 15 minutes due to a drinking and driving accident.The "victims" were then given a cross with their name on it and had to place it in front of the high school, where one of the vehicles from the morning's accident was placed.The crash scene, events throughout the day as well as a party scene that was held prior to the accident was filmed by PHS video technology students and shown at an assembly for the entire high school this morning in the PHS auditorium. The assembly included a memorial service and students walking by a casket — fitted with a mirror to show their own reflection — as well as speakers including fire marshal Philip Mize, PHS principal Lisa Kersh and representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD.)Thirty of the program's participants attended an overnight retreat at Hutcherson Center where they participated in a number of activities from writing their eulogies and eye-opening letters to their parents to driving golf carts and taking field sobriety tests with "fatal vision" goggles that simulate being drunk.Mize, who coordinated the entire event, said the program really has a strong impact on the students and their families."I see enough of this stuff (drinking and driving) everyday (through his job), but most people don't," he said. "They don't know the full story. This way they can see the consequences and realize the full impact."

Channel: People & Blogs
Uploaded: May 16, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Author: lacey20101

Length: 09:02
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Tags: dreams  driving  drunk  highschool  prom  shattered  

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