ADAMS TWP — Emergency responders and school officials hope a somber event Tuesday morning at Mars High School will prevent a tragedy during prom and graduation season.

For the third time in the past eight years, a mock fatal car accident was staged in the school parking lot. It was organized by the high school's R.E.A.C.H. Club (Responsible, Educated Adolescents Can Help) and Brandon Makin of the Adams Area Fire District.

Professional makeup artists applied realistic blood and bruises to the faces and extremities of a handful of R.E.A.C.H. Club members who played the severely injured occupants of the two wrecked vehicles.

All of the high school's juniors and seniors watched as the mock accident scene played out. The county 911 center dispatched Adams Area and Callery volunteer fire departments, Quality EMS, Adams Township Police, Butler County Sheriff's Department and the Butler County Coroner to the realistic scene with lights and sirens blaring.

The van and SUV, which were donated by Classic Automotive, appeared to have been in a head-on collision. One R.E.A.C.H. student laid motionless on the van's hood before being covered by a white sheet.

Another student was given and “failed” a field sobriety test by an Adams police officer, while yet another “unconscious” girl was cut from the wreckage by Adams Area firefighters and Quality EMS personnel.

She was placed on a stretcher and wheeled to a LifeFlight helicopter, which circled the parking lot as county Sheriff Mike Slupe explained over a public address system the pilots must circle a scene before landing to check for wires or other obstructions to the giant rotors.

“Some were Vietnam pilots,” Slupe told the students. “They know how to fly a helicopter better than anyone.”

Senior Madison Brown called the mock accident “definitely scary and really eye-opening,” while junior Mitch Corsi praised Mars administrators for staging it.

“It's really smart of the school district to do, especially at this age,” Corsi said. “Kids get into a lot of situations where this could happen.”

Divine Cooper, a senior, portrayed an accident victim who was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Cooper said seeing her classmates after being made up was sobering.

“I hope the mock accident shows that this is not something you see in movies, and that the severity of (bad decisions) can be extreme,” she said.

The students then filed into the auditorium, where Slupe implored them to avoid the thinking that it couldn't happen to them.

“Your classmate was really in the body bag,” Slupe said. “The next process for that body, that person, was to be identified by mom or dad.”

Slupe then introduced Mollie Cobb, whose son Jordan died in 2009 in a drunk-driving accident after a party to celebrate graduation from Greensburg-Salem High School.

Cobb tearfully described the discovery that her son hadn't come home the night before, and the denial she enjoyed before a state police cruiser pulled into her driveway. She said she screamed “No! No! No!” as the trooper said her son died in an overnight car accident.

Cobb said she went to Jordan's room and got the last shirt he had worn before getting ready for the party.

“I smelled it, I cried into it, and I carried it around for the next several days,” Cobb said. “My sweet, sweet boy, who liked to lift me off the ground to show my how strong he was, was gone.”

Two of Jordan's friends, a boy and girl, were also killed in the alcohol-related crash.

Cobb said, “The magnitude of my pain, and the pain of the other parents, is beyond anything you can imagine.”

She asked the students to picture the agony their parents would suffer if they met the same fate through one impulsive, alcohol-fueled decision.

“Imagine your parents picking up the last thing you touched, or staring into your empty bedroom, waiting for you to appear,” Cobb said.

She said a friend of Jordan's was killed in a drunk-driving accident one year earlier, and she had pointed at the girl's picture and said “Jordan, this could be you.”

“You always think this won't happen to you,” Cobb said through tears. “You're more careful, smarter than that. Well, who do you think someone else is?”

Cobb stared intently at the sniffling students in the auditorium and raised her voice to an impassioned tone.

“Call your parents (for a ride). Call someone you trust,” Cobb implored. “Stop and remember this moment and my pain, and think how it could be your parents' pain.”

Cobb closed by projecting on the auditorium's screen a picture of a largely intact Jordan Cobb “just before they zipped up the body bag.”

“Hug your mom,” Cobb said. “Promise her you will come back when you leave, and then do whatever you have to do to keep that promise.”

After the Mars principal hugged Dan and Mollie Cobb, the students randomly began getting up to approach the Cobbs for a hug. Eventually, a long line of students waited to embrace the torn mother and father in the deadly silent auditorium.

“We're sorry for your loss, and we hope the message that you shared today doesn't fall on deaf ears,” Principal Todd Kolson told the Cobbs as he addressed the students at the end of the event. “All we want you to do is be safe.”