Students experience mock DUI crash
ADAMS TWP — Students at Mars High School on Tuesday saw first-hand the dangers of drunken driving at a mock crash.
That presentation was followed by a speaker who shared the impact a fatal accident had on his life.
Students poured out of the high school to see police, firefighters and ambulances circled around a multivehicle wreck with several students acting as injured passengers trapped inside.
Both vehicles were totaled, with the student actors appearing to be bleeding from the head and one lying on the hood of a car covered with a sheet.
Firefighters went to work on a crumpled car, cutting the door off to free those inside. A firefighter covered the passengers with a blanket to shield them from glass and debris.
“It definitely made me think of how dangerous everything is,” said Andrew Pierre, a student participant.
The firefighters finally got the door off and wheeled in stretchers for the injured passengers.
Students then watched as county coroners arrived to take away their classmate, Katie Skirtich, who was playing a motorist who died in the crash.
“It’s weird to think about, that you could actually be a dead person,” Katie said. “It makes you think you need to stay safe.”
Responders wheeled Katie and the other injured motorists away and into ambulances.
The re-enactment culminated in an AHN LifeFlight helicopter landing in the parking lot and taking a mock-critically injured motorist on a short flight.
Police arrested student actor Alex Chipps on suspicion of drunken driving. Alex said the experience helped him understand the seriousness of driving drunk.
“For a second, I felt like I was actually being arrested,” he said. “That was pretty crazy, and I hope I’m never in a cop car again. It was pretty scary.”
Students were then directed to the auditorium to hear from Vernon Hilyer, whose son, Brandon, died in 2008, nine days before turning 22. Brandon was driving home with a blood alcohol content three times the legal limit when he crashed his car and was thrown from the vehicle.“What I lost I can't get back,” Hilyer said. “The work I do is to try to get you to understand how important the decisions you make (are).”Hilyer discussed the years he spent trying to persuade his son to quit drinking and not to drive while intoxicated.As a teenager, Brandon was a star athlete and popular among his peers, Hilyer said, but he began drinking at a young age.Hilyer said it started at friends' houses — and over the years, Brandon became increasingly addicted to alcohol.Hilyer said this led to his son dropping out of college and getting into his first car crash, hitting a tree and narrowly avoiding serious injury or death. By the time he was 21, Brandon was struggling with depression and alcoholism.Hilyer said he became increasingly concerned that Brandon would die in a car accident and hurt someone else in the process. He found his son a job and set strict rules about using his car. Meanwhile, Brandon began experiencing suicidal thoughts.Hilyer said his son would text him at night about killing himself, one time threatening to jump from a bridge somewhere in Clarion County. He noted that alcoholism can do that to a person, often bringing about depression along with personal problems that can worsen festering anxieties.Hilyer said he continued to encourage his son to quit drinking, even up to the last day they spoke.On the night Brandon died, Hilyer said he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. The clock on his nightstand showed 2:15 a.m., and by 4 a.m. he got up to let his dogs out. Then he heard a knock on the door.“I already knew who was at my door,” Hilyer said.He opened the door and saw two police cruisers and an officer standing outside, looking at the ground.“'He's dead isn't he?'” Hilyer said he asked the officer. “I knew what was coming, but I didn't know when.”
The officer told him Brandon had died around 2:30 that morning after crashing his car while driving away from a bar. His blood alcohol content was .253. In Pennsylvania, a level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated.Hilyer was then left to drive to his ex-wife and daughter's house to tell them what happened.“All my dreams are gone,” he said. “He is never coming home.”Hilyer reminded the students that their choices affect more than just themselves. A fatal accident affects the friends and families of the victim, he said, but also emergency responders, police, witnesses and many others who encounter the scene of an accident.“It affects everybody,” he said.Hilyer now spends his life telling his story and the importance of responsibility while driving.“If there's one person who understands this program, then I've been brought here for the right reason,” Hilyer said.A similar mock accident is scheduled to take place Wednesday at Seneca Valley High School.
