CASSOPOLIS — Ross Beatty Senior High School junior Celia Ash didn’t really die in a drunken driving accident while on the way to prom.
Senior Brandyn Polmateer wasn’t really drinking before he got behind the wheel of and crashed the car in which Ash was a passenger.
That didn’t keep Wednesday’s mock accident from having an impact on the students witnessing the scene unfold in the school parking lot.
“It really motivates me to never drink,” junior Rachel Gleason said. “They made it very real. Two of my best friends were in that car.”
The high school organization Students Against Destructive Decisions holds a mock accident every four years to remind students of the dangers of drunken driving. Local public safety officials staged the scene in which several students piled into a car after drinking at a pre-prom party. On the way to prom, the vehicle collides head on with another vehicle, leaving one student dead and several injured.
Crews worked the scene as if it were a real accident, while Ash’s father, Dennis, narrated the accident.
“It’s still difficult to watch even though you know it isn’t real,” Dennis said.