School Stages Mock Accident as Warning Before Prom

It’s prom night, and the beer, wine and Champagne that Mark has been drinking make him feel warm and light-headed as he drives his black Mustang to the dance.

Kate is in the passenger’s seat wearing a black strapless gown. Chris and Nicole are in the back seat laughing. Mark sees the lights of oncoming cars dancing around the dark street. Suddenly, he loses control. The car hits a tree.

When the sound of breaking glass and twisting metal stops, Kate is face-up on the ground near the car. She is not breathing. Blood covers her face and streams down her shoulders. Chris lies nearby, a deep, bloody gash on the left side of his head. Nicole, who has a deep head wound, cries frantically as she tries to revive Chris. Mark wanders aimlessly around the car, a small cut on his forehead.

The scene was a dramatization--using fake blood, raw hamburger and a demolished car--to graphically demonstrate to 465 Torrance High School seniors the consequences of drinking and driving. The mock accident--complete with sirens, an ambulance, police cars and rescue personnel--was played out Tuesday during a special assembly at the school’s practice football field.

Saturday is prom night, and school officials hope the scene will replay in the minds of students as they prepare for the celebration.

“We decided, ‘Let’s try something more graphic,’ ” said Assistant Principal Jannet Feldman. “It doesn’t help to have parents lecture them.”

The Torrance Police Department and Charter Pacific Hospital joined in the demonstration, which has not been tried before in the South Bay, said Sgt. Paul Besse.

“We wanted to add something visual, something graphic,” he said. “We were trying to make it as real as possible.”

Dana Hunt, coordinator of the student counseling center, began the dramatization by asking students to close their eyes while she described the foursome’s prom night, which began with a trip to a liquor store. When she finished, the students opened their eyes to the bloody scene.

During the dramatization, Kate was pronounced dead and was wheeled away by paramedics. Chris and Nicole were taken to a hospital, and Mark was arrested for drunk driving and manslaughter.

Some students giggled and joked about the fake blood and the raw hamburger scattered near Kate’s head. Other gasped and cringed as they watched the scene unfold. “Damn,” whispered a young man in a white shirt. A blonde girl told a friend the scene sickened her.

At a nearby table, students were asked to sign a contract promising that they would not use alcohol or other drugs during the prom and graduation night, June 21. Of 465 seniors, 122 signed the contracts.

When it was over, a school administrator asked students if they believed that the scene would make them think twice about drinking and driving.

“Probably not,” said a tall young man in the back of the crowd.

“I think he’s wrong,” responded a girl sitting up front. “This made me sick.”