But she was visibly shaken Monday as she and her classmates watched emergency personnel respond to a mock two-car accident on the school campus that "took" the lives of two students and "injured" three others.

"I think it's affecting us all a lot more than we were expecting it to," she said, as students watched police cover the body of a student who "died" after having been thrown from one of the vehicles. "It's so real."

The mock alcohol-related accident was part of the "Every 15 Minutes Program," a two-day nationwide event that is dedicated to teaching and showing students the dangers of drinking and driving. The program is so named because every 15 minutes someone in the United States is injured or killed in an alcohol-related incident. These incidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers.

"The program is designed to challenge our kids to think about drinking, driving and how the deadly combination could affect not only their life, but also the lives of those who love them," Dawna Blackstone, Greenville High School health coordinator, said Monday.

The program, which will continue today with a mock funeral for those students who "died" and their parents, is a proactive and cooperative effort between the high school, C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital, and the Greenville Police and Fire departments, according to Blackstone.

Also assisting on Monday were parents of Greenville High School students, the Milo and Dover-Foxcroft police departments, the Maine Warden Service, the Piscataquis County Sheriff's Department and Crosby and Neal Funeral Home.

"I didn't think it was going to be this real," Mark Gilbert said Monday as he watched Greenville firefighters pry open one of the vehicles with an extrication tool to reach an injured student wedged inside.

"It will definitely make a lasting impression," Gilbert, a senior, said of the mock accident and the removal of students from Monday's classes. Throughout the day, Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer, dressed as the Grim Reaper, removed students from their classes to drive home to students just how many die daily in alcohol-related accidents.

Erickson, an honor student, was so overcome with emotion from the mock accident and the Grim Reaper's snatches that she became ill and left school at noon.

"It sort of sunk in to me that it was a mock accident at our school, but it could be real somewhere else at the very same time," she said.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Wednesday, May 18, 2005 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."