DWI Accidents "Shock" Students and Teachers
at Como-Pickton and Cumby

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

 

 

"The facts are startling and the reality is that it's happening every day, all around us....teenagers drinking and driving and involved in fatal and injurious accidents all across Northeast Texas," states Hopkins County Justices of the Peace, Ronny Glossup and Yvonne King. "Most people can't realize how gruesome the scenes are and how tragic the circumstances are, until you walk in our shoes and see the senseless accidents, that we see each year, simply by folks not acting responsibly with alcohol and drugs!"

 

 

Last year alone there were 221 DWI arrests in Hopkins County and 225 public intoxication tickets issued, and numerous wrecks, fatalities, and related trauma, associated with alcohol and drug abuse. "That's the reason that we staged two educational programs at Como-Pickton High School, on April 1st, and at Cumby High School, on Wednesday, April 14th," advised Hopkins County Deputry Sheriff, Brad Cummings. "The 'prom season' is coming up and our youth tend to stay out later and some consume alcohol at this traditional time of the year. If we can just prevent one of our Hopkins County youth from being involved in a tragic accident, all of our educational efforts and time spent will be worth it!"

"Alcohol or drugs and driving don't go together," warned law enforcement
officers. "All too often, youth find themselves in serious trouble and their lives
ruined, simply because they don't act responsibly and drink and drive!"

"We staged these accidents during the daytime, for convenience and for when students would be in school," continued Cummings. "However, most of these type accidents happen late at night, after 12:00 midnight. All the more reason that youth need to go home and get off the streets. They can be innocently driving, and acting responsibly and someone else, who is drinking can cause an accident and tragically the consequences of death and injury are still the same!"

 

 

 

In the two accidents, staged at Como-Pickton and Cumby, the mother of the victim "happened upon the accident" and finds her daughter dead. "This usually isn't the way it happens," advised TrooperGreenway, with the Department of Public Safety. "Usually, we're knocking on someone's door, in the middle of the night, informing them that their son or daughter has been involved in an accident. Tragically, this happens all to often in Hopkins County. The child is already on their way to the  morgue or headed to a trauma center, with severe injuries. It isn't a 'pretty' sight having to inform parents and grandparents, that their child is dead or possibly dying! You want to avoid that scene at all costs, even if you might not be considered a 'cool' parent!"

 

"The reality is that most of these accidents happen after midnight, and we're going to
someone's home, waking them up and telling them that their son or daughter has
been killed or injured in a senseless accident," warned Trooper Greenway, with Texas
Department of Public Safety.

 

 

 

Both the young men, in Cumby and Como-Pickton, who portrayed the intoxicated teen, in the accident, said that they were "doing O.K." portraying the perpetrator in the accident, until the mother of the victim came running to them, accusing them of "killing their daughter." "That was the most sobering experience, I've ever experienced," denoted the youth from Como-Pickton. "You take note of what the consequences are like and it seems so real!"

 

 

"It was hard and quite sobering, when they asked us to write an obituary for our child!" exclaimed one of the parents, who participated in the mock scene. "It grips your heart and you know that it is only by the grace of God, that you haven't been requested to do that in real life. How many other parents have been asked to do the exercise for real, and must face losing their child!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In both Como-Pickton and Cumby, the students left the scene of the mock accident and returned to the gym for a public assembly, where members of the Hopkins County Sheriff's Department, local Fire and Rescue personnel, ambulance drivers, school personnel, and Justices of the Peace, spoke to the students, about the dangers of driving while intoxicated. All warned that you didn't have to be drinking in order to be involved in a tragic accident. "You're putting yourself and your friends at risk, when you're out on the highways late at night and other people are out driving under the influence," warned the local responders. "And, you're just as dead or injured, regardless if you are drinking!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We want to make youth and adults aware that it can happen to them and does!" warned Cummings. "None of us go out and expect to be involved in an accident, and hopefully by us making these students aware of the dangers, then they will aid in sending the message to their families, their friends, and their classmates, that drinking and driving doesn't mix!"

"If this didn't get everyone's attention, nothing will!" commented Como-Pickton Senior, Saxe Daugherty. "When you're sitting in a car, covered in blood, and waiting for the rescuers to cut you out, you keep telling yourself that it isn't real, but there in the back of your mind, you know it could be happening for real! It gives you the opportunity to reflect on how easily something like this could happen, simply when you set out to have some fun! It wasn't pretty seeing your classmates being carried off in a funeral home hearse and being strapped to a stretcher!"

 

 

These students at Cumby High School were in tears, at the reality of Wednesday's mock accident,
staged at their school.

 

 

"The reality of the situation really hit home, when you felt the breeze of the helicopter blowing your hair and saw someone that just minutes before had been sitting beside you in class, being loaded onto it," remarked another student at Cumby High School. "You think that it really could be happening  and you might not ever see that friend again!"

 

 

 

"I want to thank all of the rescue teams, Justices of the Peace, peace officers, and firemen, who brought this program to our students," expressed Sandra Billodeau, Superintendent of Schools at Como-Pickton. "It was certainly an 'eye-opening' experience for everyone and spoke volumes, that could never have been accomplished in the classroom. Hopefully, everyone will wake up and take note of what could happen on any given day, right outside our school!"

The same sentiments were echoed at Cumby, as teachers, administrators, and parents discussed the programs.

 

 

Cumby H.S. Statements about Accident

 

Michael Morris- Senior – It scared me.  Seeing my friends out there in pain, I don’t want to see that in real life.

Tanner Gomez- Senior – “ The Drunk Driver”- Being out there and knowing that I was the one who caused everything being a drunk driver made me feel really low and dumb, and it just made me think about life and how quickly it can end. 

 

Lacy Worley- Junior- Just seeing what people go through out there when they have a wreck, it’s real sad, and I’ve experienced in real life and it’s not fun so I just want to warn everybody don’t drink and drive because you can lose someone that’s really close to you.  I lost 2 of my best friends over it, so just do the right thing and be careful.

April 14, 2010

Submitted by David Stribling, Jr.  Statements taken after the re-inactment and assembly presentation in gym.

 

 

 

 

 

Death is Final!!!

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