Program Held At High School

Staff Writer

Wills Point High School students were confronted with a realistic depiction of a drunk driving accident at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.

A fire drill sent the students outside only to find a bloody accident scene involving two vehicles. The accident was staged by the Wills Point fire and police departments, and involved Van Zandt County sheriffs office, the Department of Public Safety and Hiett-Lybrand Funeral Home.

The depiction was part of Shattered Dreams, an educational program sponsored by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

"This is a program used during prom season so students can see the effects of drinking and driving," said school resource officer Nicole Griffin.

Five Wills Point students, Charlie Little, Katie Gillispie, Taylor Deen, Alex Anderson and Marshall Head, participated in the program as the "victims." The students were "bloodied up" with make up, and placed in and around two badly wrecked vehicles.

As the student body, which was not told of the program beforehand, or told that the scene was staged, looked on, fire and ambulance personnel responded.

Deen, Head and Anderson were transported by ambulance, while the "drunk driver" Charlie Little was placed under arrest by a DPS trooper. Gillispie, the "deceased," was placed in a body bag and removed by the funeral home.

"Drunk driving is a violent crime," Griffin told the student body during an assembly, "And in the United States, drunk driving crimes occur more often than any other crime. Every five hours in Texas, someone is killed in an alcohol-related crash."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2004, 1,642 motorists were killed in alcohol-related crashes in Texas. That is second only to California, by one death.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that of the 98,349 drunk driving arrests made in 2004, 303 people between the age of 9 and 16 years old were arrested for drinking and driving. An additional 9,825 minors between the ages of 17 and 20 were arrested for driving under the influence.

Other speakers at the assembly were DPS officer Terry Jackson, Amanda Hollister – who recounted the loss of a friend in an alcohol-related accident – Fire Marshall Chuck Allen, and Charlie Little, who relayed the day’s experience to his fellow students.

Little, who went through the process of being transported to the Van Zandt County Jail, and being booked in, told the assembly that he "wouldn’t wish the experience on anybody," and said the experience was a real eye-opener.

Griffin said the program was a huge success, and expressed her thanks to the sheriff’s office, the Department of Public Safety, Wills Point police and fire departments, justice of the peace Ozelle Wilcoxson, Tommy’s Towing and the Texas Department of Health.