Shattered Dreams - a good program

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Lammie

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I don't know if they do this in other states, but we had a program here called "Shattered Dreams". It is supposed to teach the kids the dangers of drinking and driving, right here around prom season, so it is pretty topical. My son has had experience with it from his HS, but it was the first time I got to participate in it.

The local law enforcement, emergency responders and others stage a car accident, complete with two mangled cars and victims, who were HS students. The makeup was very convincing. One girl was lying on the street and her face looked mashed up. The others were either trapped in the car or wandering around. There was a drunk driver who was uninjured and arrested, they took him to jail and did the whole intake process with him, complete with making him stay in the drunk tank until about 8:00 that night. They even booked him with his mother present. The others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. All of the students in the school were gathered to watch what happened after the wreck. Those students were strangely silent as the responders did their jobs.

The students who went to hospitals were taped with their parents there, as well, reacting to their "deaths". I'm sure that as a parent, that was pretty emotional, even though it was not real. Those parents had to write their children's obituaries. Everyone played their parts very well. I was quite impressed.

The video was shown the next day at the memorial service for the three students who "died" in the crash. We had coffins and everything. It was a pretty emotional two days. Every fifteen minutes, a grim reaper would pick up a student from class to represent a person who dies every fifteen minutes from a drunk driving incident. Those students had to write their own obituaries beforehand and they were posted on the cafeteria.

We also had a parent of a drunk driving fatality speak at the service and a man who was on parole having received several DWI's and was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

The whole thing took most of two days, exhausting to everyone involved, and I hope it had an effect on these students as they make those choices in life.

If anyone hasn't been involved in this or heard of it, I highly recommend it.

My best friend was killed by a drunk driver when we had just both started college. It was a total waste of her life and the four other occupants of that car who were killed with her in the crash. Just 18 and so smart with such a bright future. It still hurts sometimes.
 
It sounds like a serious program. It seems every year about the time school starts or ends, there's a rash of young people being killed in car wrecks. As you say, it's such a waste of young lives. Most of the high schools here have some sort of post-prom "lock down". Local businesses donate prizes and food; someone offers up a building and the kids spend the rest of the night after the prom there playing games, sleeping, visiting, whatever. But it keeps them off the road. And that's a good thing.
 
They have the staged car crashes around here. I'm not sure they go as far as writing obits or visiting the jail.
In my day it was a movie that we watched in Driver Ed. 30 minutes of gore. I'm not sure how much good this all does, as young folks still think they are bulletproof.
 
I hope none of you ever have to endure the pain of loosing a child we buried our son exactly 1 yr to the day of burying one of his friends both were passengers of drunk drivers
I don't really beleive these programs work on the multitude of students but if they save 1 persons life they are worth it
it will be 3 yrs June 10th that we lost our son and he would have been 21 on the 18th of May so the next month will be extremely hard

Loosing a child isn't the hard part it is living with that loss day in and day out for the rest of your life that is hard there isn't a day goes by that I don't think of him and miss him and it makes me very mad

They should re-name that program SHATTERED LIVES
 
There are similar programs around here, but they don't visit jails. About a year ago, one of my friends was driving around with some of his other friends and they got hit by a drunk/high driver and it killed all four of them. The drunk driver was recently sentenced for about 50 years.
 
Angus Cowman":10gvvxdf said:
I hope none of you ever have to endure the pain of loosing a child we buried our son exactly 1 yr to the day of burying one of his friends both were passengers of drunk drivers
I don't really beleive these programs work on the multitude of students but if they save 1 persons life they are worth it
it will be 3 yrs June 10th that we lost our son and he would have been 21 on the 18th of May so the next month will be extremely hard

Loosing a child isn't the hard part it is living with that loss day in and day out for the rest of your life that is hard there isn't a day goes by that I don't think of him and miss him and it makes me very mad

They should re-name that program SHATTERED LIVES

I'm so sorry for your loss. :( My neighbor recently lost a daughter in a single car accident. She was a shining star, smart, pretty, recent college graduate, focused on what to do with the rest of her life. It's such a loss.
 
AC, I'm sorry you lost your son. I had a bad scare wtih mine three years ago in a single vehicle crash. Went through the window and injured his head and badly broke his leg. He still has trouble with the leg and will always have scars on his face. Looking at the car, you would not think that anyone would have survived. I was real lucky and count my blessings.
 

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