Tioga Central YES! LEADers Show the Dangers of Drunk Driving

Tioga Central High School's YES! LEADers showed the dangers of drunk driving to their junior and senior classmates during an emotional and graphic mock crash scene Thursday afternoon.

YES! LEADers David Ulrich, Cassie Chambers and Katie Hutchison teamed up with five other Tioga Central High School students to portray a grizzly car accident scene where two cars collided in the morning following a night of drinking, with two of the students being killed in the crash. Tioga Central and Nichols fire departments and emergency services responded to the scene with assistance from the Tioga County Sheriff's Department and narration by a New York State Trooper.

The presentation lasted almost an hour and illustrated the amount of time it takes to be rescued in a situation like this, with one student being arrested for having alcohol on his breath. The students were taken out in ambulances and the coroner showed up towards the end to take out one of the deceased students.

Following the demonstration, the students returned inside, where the Trooper showed the long term ramifications of the accident using realistic descriptions of how each person's life would be affected from that point on. Students then listened to a real, unedited 911 phone call from a drunk driving accident that had occurred locally one year before where two of the passengers were killed. A moving testimony from the first fireman on the scene of this same accident and one of the students involved in the mock crash brought several students to tears and really put the afternoon in perspective.

It was a very dramatic, emotional afternoon that effectively displayed how one bad decision can affect your life forever.

To check out pictures from Tioga Central's mock drunk driving accident, click here.

Vestal Wraps Up Their Presentations

Today, Vestal High School YES! LEADers concluded their tour of elementary schools at Tioga Hills Elementary, presenting to students on the dangers of smoking, alcohol and peer pressure.

Over the last month, the LEADers visited Tioga Hills, Vestal Hills, African Road, Clayton Avenue and Glenwood Elementary Schools and presented to over 350 elementary students. They used coffee stirrers to illustrate the effects of smoking, marshmallows to show how difficult alcohol can make it to be understood, and Stop Signs and the Friendship Quiz to show how peer pressure can be both a good and bad thing.

Along with these activities, the LEADers provided tools to the kids by teaching them the "10 Ways to Make Safe Choices".

Next week, Windsor High School's YES! LEADers will begin their presentation tour of their elementary schools.