Mock Wreck at Local High School

Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 20, 2008

It wasn’t real, but a mock car crash at Jefferson Forest High School on Wednesday still was terrifying for senior Amanda Rust.

She was one of four students who survived the crash with painted-on wounds.

Their friend, Raychell Craig, wasn’t so lucky.

Craig hopes the image of her body covered with a sheet will show other students the dangers of drinking and driving.
She is part of a local chapter of Youth of Virginia Speak Out, which works to combat drunk driving and promote safe driving among teenagers.

The chapter sponsored the mock accident, staged during school hours in the student parking lot.

From 2000 to 2006, 32 Bedford County teens lost their lives in traffic accidents, according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, an online database of traffic-related fatalities managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At least four more teens have died in traffic accidents in Bedford County since 2007, according to The News & Advance archives.
Over the past few years, Bedford County school officials have promoted safe driving programs, including seminars for teaching parents how to coach their young drivers and speakers with real-life horror stories about drunk driving.

They also are working with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office to raise money for a program that uses simulators and a specially rigged car to give student drivers the feel of how a car reacts in a skid.

Carole Skelly, co-sponsor of JF’s local Youth of Virginia Speak Out chapter, said the group is trying to prevent more accidents, alcohol related or otherwise.

“A lot of the accidents that you hear of are definitely preventable,” she said.

The group has performed mock car crashes for several years, usually timed around spring break and prom.

“They definitely get a bit crazy around prom time,” Skelly said.

Rust said the group aimed to steer students into making a “prom promise” to not drink and drive on their big night.

Student Resource Officer E.W. Grubbs also co-sponsors the group.

“It teaches them not to drink and drive, that’s the real thing,” he said.

On Friday, the last day before spring break, students who didn’t see the crash in person will watch a video of the event. It portrays five of their classmates drinking and driving while on the way to prom.

Craig is the driver. She loses control of the Ford Crown Victoria and is ejected in the crash. She dies at the scene.

The other four teens are trapped in the crushed vehicle. Rescue workers with the Forest Volunteer Fire Company, the Goode Volunteer Rescue Squad and the Boonsboro Fire and Rescue Company — which all sent volunteers to the mock crash — have to saw open the car to get the students out.

The teens suffer internal and external injuries and, of course, the loss of a friend.

Principal Tony Francis said if the event were to help a few students, it would be worth it.

“They need to see some things like this so they know it’s reality,” Francis said. “We’ve had far too many young people in crashes.”