With Spring Break about a month away, a group of Sharyland Pioneer High School students gave their classmates a firsthand look at the consequences of drinking and driving with a mock fatal crash Tuesday morning.  

The simulation is called “Shattered Dreams.” 

“The big message that we’re trying to spread out is to be to safer during Spring Break and in general not to drink and drive and not to be distracted by any others in your car and always use your seat belt,” said junior Rebecca Salazar. 

Principal James Heath says showing the strong images to students should help reduce the amount of fatalities among teens in the valley.

“You know we talk about academics all the time and what to do and what college after high school, but we rarely get a chance to do these kinds of things so we really wanted to give the seniors, and really our whole student body, some more information of real life outside of school,” said Pioneer High School Principal James Heath. 

Students watched as emergency crews responded to the mock crash, used the jaws of life, remove deceased victims from the scene, and even performing field sobriety tests. 

“They’re going to realize that the consequences of some of their actions are really powerful and they’ll probably be more cautious in the future and not make the same mistakes that were made here today,” said senior Caitlyn Katrell. 

During spring break last year in Texas, 16 people were killed in crashes involving young drivers under the influence of alcohol, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. 

 District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez says every fatality is someone’s lost loved one who is gone due to someone breaking the law and making irresponsible choices. 

“I didn’t just want to talk to them about it, but we also showed them scenes that were graphic so they can understand. If they don’t watch the news often or read the papers, they can’t understand what the community goes through when we have incidents like this,” said Rodriguez.

The simulation was filmed and will be used as a tool to continue to spread awareness.