The deadly and heart-breaking consequences of impaired driving were laid bare before Holy Trinity high schoolers yesterday.
Hundreds of students went from the usual 9 a.m. light of the classroom to a dark gym and stories of tragic loss and trauma, all due to drugs or alcohol.
MADD Canada and the NLC have teamed up to deliver the impaired driving prevention program to schools around the province this year.
It includes a brief Q and A with the students, but it’s the 20-minute film, and the anticipated outcome, that grips them.
Afterward, real grieving moms, dads, brothers and sisters try to describe their forever grief on the massive video screen.
Holy Trinity students offered insightful views on the presentation.
“You don’t think it’s going to happen to you until it does,” said one. “I have seen people get in that car before at parties and it makes me scared.”
“It’s just hard to stop someone,” said another, “and you just don’t want to put the pressure on yourself to have to go and stop them, even though you should.”
“I know, personally, if my parents got that call, it would break them completely. The takeaway for me is just don’t do it.”
Stats show vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death among young people in Canada, with more than half linked to alcohol, weed or other drugs.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation is sponsoring all 20 presentations at schools this year.