Horror show leaves its mark on students

Scott McIntyre "treats" Zach Ingber, portraying a drunken-driving accident victim, while other students watch and listen to Patrick Kelly during a program Friday morning at Fallsburg High School. Kelly and McIntyre are firefighters and paramedics from Orlando, Fla.

They view unsafe driving's gory results

FALLSBURG — Zach Ingber lay on a backboard in the auditorium of Fallsburg Junior-Senior High School for 15 minutes Friday, pretending to be a dying teen as paramedics arranged an IV drip, chest tube and bladder bag around his thin frame.

The scene was fictitious for the 17-year-old senior and his audience, 200 fellow Fallsburg students, but the pre-prom message real-life paramedics Patrick Kelly and Scott McIntyre gave them was genuine: Sober driving and seat belts can save their lives.

"I definitely think I'm going to be wearing my seat belt a lot more," Ingber said. "It's not a good position to be in, lying on that backboard."

Kelly and McIntyre hope all students react that way to "Street Smart," a national program that uses graphic images from actual crash scenes to underscore the dangers of teenage drinking and the importance of seat belts.

Goshen-based beer wholesaler Dana Distributors brought Kelly and McIntyre, both firefighters and paramedics in Orlando, Fla., to Fallsburg in the morning and Liberty High School in the afternoon.

At Fallsburg, whose junior prom was also Friday, they showed slides of mangled bodies and cars from actual accidents and then demonstrated the work involved in trying to save someone's life.

"The graphic nature of it just lends itself to the reality of the consequences of making poor choices," said Kelly. "We basically show what we see on a daily basis."

Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-C-Forestburgh, addressed the students, too. She recalled the 2004 crash on Sackett Lake Road in which the 16-year-old driver lost control of an SUV and killed three teenage passengers.

"The young man was not on alcohol; he wasn't on drugs. But he was speeding," she said.

Fallsburg Principal Mike Williams reminded students that he was not wearing a seat belt during the crash that broke his ribs, femur, kneecap and several toes and fingers when he was 19 years old.

"I destroyed myself to the point of getting last rites," he said. "Everything they did here today, I went through, and more."

By Leonard Sparks
Times Herald-Record.