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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfDlZjosJY8

Mock DUI crashes, like the one in the video above, are a powerful way that high schools throughout Florida and across the country get the point across to teenagers about the dangers of drinking and driving. This becomes especially pertinent during the months of April, May and June, or prom and graduation season. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that more than one-third of alcohol-related traffic fatalities involving victims under the age of 21 occur during these three months.

“You never know how effective it's going to be,” Captain Don De Lucia, Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue spokesman, told the Sun Sentinel. “You figure if you save one (student), you accomplished something.”

The Florida chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) has also encouraged schools in the Sunshine State to use “Ghost Out Days” in which approximately every seven minutes, a person designated as the Grim Reaper enters a classroom and taps one student on the shoulder to identify him or her as the victim of a drunk driving auto accident. At the end of the school day, the Grim Reaper leads a parade of designated “ghosts” into a school-wide assembly, with the total number of victims representing the equivalent of one full day of DUI deaths in the United States.

The Sun Sentinel noted that crash reenactments date back to the early 1990s, and it is important that we continue to make efforts like these to hammer home the point that drinking and driving carries far more than just legal consequences. While teenagers are developing attitudes and behaviors about society, we must implore them to make decisions that will not result in consequences that will last the remainder of their lifetimes.

Wooten, Kimbrough & Normand, P.A. – Orlando personal injury attorneys

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