PECULIAR, Mo. — The day before prom, juniors and seniors at Raymore-Peculiar High School got a lesson on how dangerous destructive decisions can be when it comes to driving.
Students against Destructive Decisions put together a mock crash scenario Friday morning, where theater students acted in the crash scenes. Officers, firefighters, life flight, EMS and even personnel from funeral services were on site to display how serious and tragic these accidents can be.
"You know accidents happen all the time," Ray-Pec teacher and Students Against Drunk Driving sponsor Tina Fultz said. "When you've caused an accident because you've done something stupid like even just not wearing your seat belt or drinking and driving, or texting and driving, those are things that can be prevented."
Fultz, who's been a part of the mock crash scenarios for the past 16 years, says a lot has changed over the years, from drunk driving, to now more distracted driving, such as texting, Snapchat and other forms of social media while behind the wheel. She says these crashes are personal for her.
"It was because of four fatalities and it was very emotional and so we started doing that just to try to help the kids understand the impact of the decisions that they were making," Fultz said. "They can make a difference just by wearing their seat belt or not texting and driving."
SADD president and high school senior Morgan Houston says it's a very raw moment because of how real the scenario can be.
"I'm a little emotional," Houston said. "It's not easy to just walk and be like okay today we're going to show on this mock crash and see someone that one of my peers actually zipped up in a body bag and taken away. It's more emotional than you think."
While she's very excited for prom, she hopes she and her peers will take the necessary steps to have fun and be safe.
"I just want everyone to know that stuff like this is real and that we need to take it into our own hands to not make decisions like this to cause or to create accidents and to just make smarter decisions and just not to be stupid," Houston said. "Think about what you do before you actually do it."
