PORTLAND, Maine — A mock car crash in front of Portland High School Wednesday morning took on extra significance after news spread that the teen driver in a fatal January crash is facing manslaughter and other charges.
Police arrested Kristina Lowe, 19, of Oxford on Tuesday for her role in a West Paris accident in which two of her friends died. Lowe allegedly had been drinking before taking the wheel and was distracted by text messages while driving at the time of the crash.
“I know she’s facing up to 95 years in jail,” Portland School Resource Officer Coreena Behnke, adviser to the high school’s Students Against Destructive Decisions group, which organized Wednesday’s simulation, said. “Every time students hear about someone getting hurt in an accident or killed in an accident, it adds to the message.”
In the vivid Wednesday morning demonstration, which closed a stretch of Cumberland Avenue for just more than an hour, senior Kara Grant played the role of the impaired driver while classmate Anthony Bowden acted as her passenger, who was shown as killed in the staged two-vehicle crash.
As would be the case in a real accident, police, firefighters and even a funeral hearse arrived on the scene. Bowden’s real-life mother, Susan, stepped in to play the grieving parent informed of the tragedy by Bahnke. Rescuers used the Jaws of Life to cut the roof from Grant’s vehicle and extricate Bowden, who laid unmoving under a white blanket.
“Seeing Tony get zipped up in that body bag hit home for people,” said SADD organizer and Portland High School senior Sammi Walker after the event.
Grant was led away from the scene in handcuffs by police after taking a mock sobriety test.
“The person driving that car is going to jail,” Kimberly Wike, the school’s assistant principal, told a crowd of students assembled on the front steps to watch the simulation. “She’s not going off to college. She’s not going to have a family. She’s going to live the rest of her life with the guilt of knowing she killed one of her friends. Think of that every Friday or Saturday night when you’re out with friends or having a beer.”
Michaela Walker, a Portland freshman who watched the demonstration, told the BDN the scene “really hit hard.”
“We don’t see a lot, but we know what can happen,” she said. “This makes it seem real.”
Her cousin, Westbrook High School sophomore Angela Beattie, also was on hand.
“I thought it was really scary and sad,” Beattie said. “I wouldn’t want this to happen to any of my friends.”
I hope this has the desired impact – young lives lost to “Destructive Decisions” impact everyone. It only takes a split second …
These mock crashes are all good, but the students know it is fake and some even chuckle during the acting out of the scene. What I believe would hit them harder would be to show photos of actual crash scenes from their towns or even have the surviving victims or families speak. This would bring back the thoughts they probably had when those accidents happened.
Another idea would be having someone who actually killed someone in this type of accident tell the students what jail is like and always having on your mind that you killed someone.
Possibly along with your recommendation they could write and act it to the incarcerated persons circumstances. It also would not hurt to involve another vehicle, with fatalities, such as father, mother, toddler. Some say this is harsh for these young people to see, no this is a reality of being irresponsible.
I hear ya. We had a program like this my Senior year of HS and all the girls balled and wailed while the guys just chuckled and went off and partied after that. We had Bob Carlson do the “funeral” services…..That really legitimized it……….
There have been a number of studies done on the effectiveness of these mock crashes and other ‘scared straight’ approaches. They have no impact on students behavior – sure kids are affected by them for an afternoon and the adults all feel good about it, but they create meaningful change. Not that research matters – the DARE program has been known for years to do absolutely nothing to change drug use behaviors in kids, but communities still put good money into it.
How sad for all involved. Two young women dead and another facing a long life in prison. Doing the wrong thing for a few seconds can lead to a lifetime lost.
I really would have liked that jeep they cut up.
I was there, and I have to say it was pretty hard watching your classmates being pulled out of a crunched heap of metal, seeing Anthony Bowden’s mother run after Kara Grant screaming “You Killed My Son!” and hearing one of the girls start off the simulation shrieking for help. I don’t drink (I won’t until I’m 21) and I currently don’t drive, but seeing these sort of things always help to hold my resolve. We’ve had people come and talk, we’ve seen the images, heard the speeches – it’s not until you’re physically present and just thinking “I could never, ever do this to myself, my friends or my family” that it really makes an impact.
Thanks for sharing this, Elizabeth. You’ve made an excellent choice in not drinking.
they should have new drivers either spend a weekend observing in a trauma ER or riding along with an ambulance crew. THAT is real & might hit home & just might save some lives.
Thank God we have good conservatives like Sec of State Charlie Summers getting progress done on this problem.
How about a guided tour of a medical examiner doing an autopsy of someone that they know, or maybe read about online or heard on the radio. After they were done puking from smelling all that a morgue has to offer, maybe, just maybe they might stop to think. or not. Most kids think they are going to live forever. I was the same way. Most people, if they are honest, felt like they were immortal at that age. Youth is wasted on the young.
I think drivers education classes should have a section on accidents and distracted driving. When I took drivers ed (nine years ago) we never really went over any of that. I think it’s important for kids to know that they are driving around in a literal ton of metal and the damage it can cause to them and others when it is not driven properly. Accident photos along with these mock accidents really seems to give kids an idea of what happens.