Ghostly reminder
Staged wreck saves teens from becoming statistics
Karen Peterson photo
A student appears lifeless in a mock accident at Charlo High School.
Karen Peterson photo
A grim reaper mills among emergency workers at a mock accident scene.
Karen Peterson photo
Madison Savage, 16, speaks to students during the Ghost Out event at Charlo High School.
Karen Peterson photo
Karen Peterson photo
Karen Peterson photo
Karen Peterson photo
Karen Peterson photo
Karen Peterson photo
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CHARLO – Kyla Kirsh, 16, was turned into a ghost with several other Charlo High School students on April 22 in an effort to help teens understand that people can die when someone drives while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
“We couldn’t talk to anyone during the day,” she said wearing a gray T-shirt and the bloody wounds that caused her to become a ghost. “We each wrote a letter to parents as if we were dead. We wrote about the things we never got to tell our parents because we died, which was mostly I love you. I actually started to tear up, even though this isn’t real, but this feeling is.”
After haunting the school, the ghosts gathered behind the scene of an alcohol-related crash staged near the football field. High school students looked through the windows of two smashed cars to see four of their classmates sitting with bloody injuries. One student was on the ground with her eyes closed.
The Charlo Fire Department responded to the scene with the Jaws of Life to free the victims from the cars as if the accident were real. The teen driver that caused the wreck crawled out from the back of the car appearing to be drunk. In a mock trial, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for vehicular homicide.
Two ambulance crews from Charlo and St. Ignatius helped remove the victims from the cars. MedStar flew in to take one student to the hospital. She was pronounced dead in the emergency room set up in the gym. The Lake County Sheriff’s Department helped secure the scene, and the Montana Highway Patrol began investigating the evidence. The victim on the ground was put into a body bag and taken away in a hearse from St. Ignatius.
Trooper Thomas Manz with the Montana Highway Patrol said everyone gladly volunteered to help create the scene in an effort to prevent real accidents.
“This scene is not uncommon to what a real scene would look like,” he said of the authenticity of the mock wreck.
Student Lane Roquet, 17, watched the scene.
“I’ve lost a couple friends to drinking and driving,” he said. “This made me think about them. Real stuff like this happens all the time.”
Madison Savage, 16, organized the event. She needed to do something for the community as a requirement for a Pathways Scholarship. She discovered some shocking statistics while putting together the event.
“Crashes are the leading killer of teenagers,” she said. “Every fifteen minutes someone is killed in a drug or alcohol related crash. I wanted (students) to realize that drunk driving has consequences.”
Madison invited Shawna Doty of Charlo to talk to students in the gym. Doty was involved in a real alcohol-related crash as an adult in 2008.
“I woke up on the side of the road,” she said. She remembers blood dripping from her head. A doctor later told her she’d broken her neck. With physical therapy, she was able to eventually walk.
“It would be hypocritical of me to tell you not to drink, but I beg you to have a designated driver,” she said. “You all have so much life ahead of you. Don’t let one night of bad choices take that away.”
Many emergency responders at the event said they’d seen many accidents related to drugs and alcohol. One MHP trooper said the problem wasn’t only drinking and driving, but people playing with the radio and being on the phone. They asked the students to make good choices.
Superintendent Thom Peck told students he wanted to face the reality that alcohol was part of the culture. He said he didn’t want students to drink, but if they found themselves in that situation, he recommended calling a designated driver, even if it got them into trouble.
“You’re going to make the world better, but you can’t do that if you’re dead,” he said. “Today was not to scare you but to tell you how much people care about you.”
