As Spring Arrives, So Do Warnings to Teens

Enjoy Rituals Safely, Area Officials Urge

With the approach of high school spring break and prom season, police agencies are gearing up for their annual effort to educate young people about the dangers of drinking and driving.

Each year in Maryland, dozens of young people are killed in automobile accidents, most involving alcohol and speeding, police and public safety authorities said. Police from Montgomery to St. Mary's counties are offering programs that include simulations to demonstrate the effects of alcohol on reflexes, sessions for parents on how to detect alcohol abuse, speeches, dramas and video and photo presentations that show the devastation of a drunken-driving crash.

"We make every effort to prevent young people from consuming alcoholic beverages and driving motor vehicles," said Vernon Herron, public safety director for Prince George's County. "We don't call them accidents. They are crashes, and many times alcohol is a factor."

In Montgomery, police work with students, parents and the business community to emphasize the importance of staying sober during high school events. The Every 15 Minutes Program, which demonstrates the impact of drunken driving on students, families and communities, was implemented at Wootton High School in Rockville. The program was named for the time that elapses between alcohol-related fatal crashes in the United States, said Lucille Baur, a Montgomery police spokeswoman.

"There is a presentation where a certain number of students represent themselves as having died in traffic collisions," Baur said. "Their parents come in and talk about what it's like to have lost them. Friends talk about what it's like for them to have lost the person. The students dress in black and go around the school all day."

A crashed car is parked in front of the school, and a former student who survived a crash in which someone died addresses the students.

"It really is a very valuable tool," Baur said.

She said Montgomery police emphasize that parents should host only alcohol-free parties for young people. The department tells liquor merchants, hotel operators and limousine companies that they should not assist students in obtaining alcohol or allow teens to consume alcohol at their businesses.

This month, students from four Prince George's high schools learned about the effects of alcohol on drivers through the Florida-based Street Smarts program. In it, emergency medical personnel show students photographs and videos of crashes involving victims from their mid-teens to their mid-20s, said Cpl. Yakeisha Hines, a spokeswoman for the Prince George's Sheriff's Office.

"I think kids today are desensitized, but their presentation really has shock value," she said. "It was live and in color. The kids, even the ones in the schools that I thought were so tough, really reacted to it. "

The emergency workers demonstrated the protocol for responding to a drunken-driving crash by simulating starting an intravenous drip, inserting a catheter and tracheal tube and taking blood from a student, Hines said.

"Some of the kids said after the program that 'I never put on my seat belt in the back seat, but I'm going to start now!' " Hines said.

Police agencies are also using the Gator AID (Alcohol-Induced Driving) program, where students experience simulated drunken-driving conditions, said Sgt. John Carr of the Prince George's Sheriff's Office. Carts donated by the John Deere company, known for manufacturing heavy equipment, are placed on a driving course. Students are given "fatal-vision goggles," which simulate what a driver sees at different blood-alcohol levels.

"The vision blurs more as the higher alcohol level is simulated," Carr said. The students then drive the cart while wearing the goggles. They find even driving a straight path to be a challenge. Turning, backing up, parking and other maneuvers are very difficult, he said.

Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey (D) said the tragedy of losing nine teens in traffic accidents during the 2007-08 school year motivated his agency to begin working with students when school doors opened in August. Although none of the those fatalities involved alcohol, Coffey said, educating students about the dangers of drinking and driving is an integral part of the department's safe-driving program.

Deputies passed out fliers titled "Rules of the Road" at each of the county's six high schools on the first day of school. Deputies and school-based officers worked with students, parents and school officials to emphasize the need for students to comply with driving regulations, such as limiting the number of passengers in a vehicle, refraining from talking on cellphones and texting while driving, wearing seat belts and obeying speed limits, Coffey said.

Sgt. Carl Rye, who supervises Calvert's juvenile resource officers, said student Safe Driving Task Force programs were set up in each of the county's high schools. Each has 20 to 50 members who create educational materials and compete to produce safe-driving radio and TV ads, which are aired at schools.

Coffey said he thinks that young people who learn early to comply with basic traffic laws are less likely to engage in potentially fatal behavior behind the wheel. "I always say, any day that we go without having a young person die in a traffic fatality is a good day."