DUI Message Drives Home Point To Students

SEBRING - One drink and one decision to drive after drinking can affect many people, Sebring High School Resource Officer/Deputy Sheriff Ross Porter told students Thursday.

The message was timed to caution and inform students prior to Sebring High School's senior prom, which is this evening.

The Highlands County Sheriff's Office sets up extra enforcement during peak alcohol drinking events, including prom time, Porter said.

Porter offered the following DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs) statistics:
u In Florida drivers under the age of 21 can be arrested for a blood alcohol level of .02 percent (one drink).

* In 2006, 34,638 people in Florida were arrested for DUI.

* Vehicle accidents are the No. 1 cause of death for teens in America.

The students watched a video depicting a two-vehicle head-on collision in which a teen-aged male driver is killed and his female companion is seriously injured. The teen driver of the other vehicle is charged with DUI in connection with a death.

The video featured rescue vehicles and personnel from Gwinnett County, Ga.

Students were given a raffle ticket upon entering the school's media center prior to the presentation. Before the video was shown, three tickets were drawn and the students who held the tickets were taken into an adjoing room.
When the video concluded, the three students were brought in as the three teen-aged characters in the video. A female student, with a large bandage on her face, was in wheelchair. A gurney with a student in a body bag, representing the accident fatality, was wheeled in. The student who chose to drink and drive resulting in a death was placed inside a jail cell.

As Porter pointed out the concequences of drinking and driving, School Resource Officer/Deputy Sheriff Brian Giguere passed to students copies of a Contract for Life, which is a pledge to remain free from alcohol and drugs and a promise to never ride with an impaired driver.