‘Crash’ shows results of drunken driving

By SHELBY SCHROEDER

Students heard from a man whose daughter was killed by a drunken driver.

NILES — Around 350 students gathered outside as Niles firefighters peeled the roof off a victim’s crumbled car.

On a chilly Friday morning, in the parking lot of McKinley High School, juniors and seniors looked on at the extensive portrayal of a drunken- driving accident scene.

The scene at McKinley was preceded by guest speaker Joe Leasure, a Warren man who has felt the effects of drunken driving through the loss of his 20-year-old daughter.

He described for the crowd, seated on the school’s bleachers, the night his daughter, Caitlin Leasure, was killed by a driver outside Savannah, Ga., while on a trip with her boyfriend.

An intoxicated man, driving the wrong way on Interstate 95 the evening of March 26, 2007, collided head-on with her boyfriend’s vehicle. She was a passenger.

Leasure remembers receiving a call from his daughter’s cell phone. On the other end was a witness on the scene, calling to inform the Leasure family their daughter was in the accident.

As a father, Leasure said, he was used to fixing things, but his daughter’s death was unchangeable.

“I can’t fix that,” he recalled thinking. “I don’t know how to fix that.”

Leasure’s speech drew sniffles and applause from students, who where then moved outside for the mock accident.

Principal Michael Notar told students the display was to urge smart choices because he and the faculty cared for their well-being.

The demonstration was created “not because [the volunteers] want to stand outside on a rainy day, but to show you this because they’ve seen the real thing before,” Notar said to the crowd.

According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, there were more than 15,000 alcohol-related accidents on the road in Ohio in 2007. Those accidents resulted in 473 deaths.

Outside, the scene closely resembled a real accident.

Students were met with the sounds of sirens as emergency vehicles sped into the lot. Police cruisers, an ambulance, a firetruck and medical vehicle surrounded the scene — two crushed vehicles, a stumbling man, beer cans and a body on the blacktop.

Firefighters used a hydraulic device to peel back the roof of the victim’s car, freeing a trapped and injured occupant. Meanwhile, police administered a sobriety test to the suspected drunken driver, and the deceased was carried away in a body bag.

Nearly a dozen personnel from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, city police and fire department aided in the activity, which was meant to caution Friday night’s prom-goers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that motor vehicle accidents remain the leading cause of death for people between ages 16 and 20.

However compelling studies may seem, people such as Joe Leasure don’t just look at the numbers.

“The statistics you never hear are [those of] the people left behind,” he said.