Carroll County : Students shown DUI’s real-life consequences
Posted on Thursday, April 5, 2007
BERRYVILLE — About 200 juniors and seniors from Berryville, Green Forest and Eureka Springs high schools formed a semi-circle around a mock crash scene.
They gaped as paramedics drove off with the injured and coroners carried away the bodies of two dead.
The accident wasn’t real, but the tears it evoked from Eureka Springs resident Whitney Anderson were.
“This time last year, I was lying in a hospital bed in the ICU when I was told my friend was gone,” Anderson, 21, told the crowd after the exercise.
Anderson’s friend Ryan Thomas, 19, died in an accident March 31, 2006. Anderson was driving a 1994 Isuzu Rodeo at the time of the crash.
She told her story Wednesday with the hope that the students wouldn’t make the same mistake she did — to drink and drive.
It’s a lesson Berryville resident Harley Fox wants to take nationwide through the nonprofit organization he founded, Project Save Our Children Against Drunk Driving Inc.
The project has more than 20 sponsors and operates in the Berryville, Eureka Springs and Green Forest Public School systems. It recently expanded to Michigan.
Fox organized Tuesday’s mock crash to educate teenagers before prom about the dangers of driving under the influence.
Emergency first-responders participated in the exercise at the Berryville Community Center.
“These vehicles are a deadly weapon,” Carroll County Sheriff Robert Grudek told the students. “I hope that this little exercise has a lasting impression on you. I hope none of you ever have to experience the real thing.” Anderson knows all too well about experiencing the “real thing.” She and Thomas had been drinking the evening of the crash.
“I know he had been drinking more than me,” Anderson said. “I thought I could handle it.” They were on Arkansas 187 in Beaver when she swerved off the road in a curve.
The sport utility vehicle flipped several times and traveled about 300 feet before coming to rest, state police said at the time of the accident.
Anderson and Thomas were thrown from the vehicle. Anderson broke her leg and two ribs, and had a concussion and bruised spleen.
“I just hope they don’t make that same mistake that I did,” Anderson said of the students. “I hope they realize how precious life is.” Fox and his family also have been touched by the “real thing.” His daughter Constance Lynn Fox, a nurse, her fiance Shane Barkman and friend Adam Grinillo died Sept. 10, 2000, when they were hit by a drunken driver on Interstate 215 in Perris, Calif.
Fox said he got the idea to start the project when he took a drunken-driving course in Harrison after being cited for driving under the influence, something he never thought would happen after losing his daughter.
“I seriously didn’t think I had enough not to be driving,” Fox said. “I never thought I would do that. Alcohol makes you think you’re Superman when you’re only Clark Kent.” As part of the course, students wore fatal vision goggles meant to simulate being intoxicated. Fox thought others could benefit from the lesson.
Wearing the goggles, students attempt simple tasks such as catching a ball or picking an item off the floor.
“They see that even the most simple tasks become difficult,” Fox said.
They then try to navigate an obstacle course wearing the goggles while driving a speciallydesigned golf cart that has a roll cage, two steering wheels and two break pedals so an instructor can take control at any time. Students are required to wear a helmet.
“It was terrible for me driving with the drunken goggles,” said Berryville High School junior Jack Burket, 17, after trying to navigate the course Tuesday. “They make it really hard to drive the cart. It’s like a blur, like seeing five of everything.” Freshman Osman Gallardo, 16, said he felt dizzy after completing the course.
“Drinking and driving is not a good equation,” he said.
Freshman Micaela Weimann, 15, said it’s a hard lesson to teach.
While she said she won’t drink and drive, she knows others will.
“They’re doing everything they can, but people will still do it,” Weimann said. “They always think that it won’t happen to them, so I kind of think it takes a personal experience to teach them the lesson.” It is just that kind of hands-on experience Fox hopes will stay with the kids. With the help of sponsors and donations through several annual fundraisers, Fox offers the program free to the schools.
Project Save Our Children has a board of directors, and Fox said he expects his application to become a 501 (c )(3 ) nonprofit to come through later this year.
He estimates it will cost about $ 200, 000 the first year and about $ 100, 000 annually after that. If counties are interested, he said it would cost about $ 20, 000 for them to start the program. “I want to give them the education so they will have a choice,” Fox said. “You’ve got to have a choice in life.” To contact this reporter: cpark@arkansasonline. com
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