Drunken driving hits Holmdel High School

By maura dowgin
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT James Riley, playing the role of a drunken driver during the Project Crash demonstration at Holmdel High School, tries to walk a straight line for Holmdel Police Officer Jon Holmes May 9.

HOLMDEL — Township high school students may now think twice before drinking and driving.

Juniors and seniors from the school witnessed a simulated car accident, complete with police, firefighters and paramedics, May 9.

"I really think we touched some kids because I saw the reaction on their faces," said Mary Badichek, a member of the school’s Project Crash Committee.

The committee wanted to "reach the kids — save a life," Badichek said. "If we save just one life, that’s enough."

JEFF GRANIT Evidence of drinking and driving lie all over the scene at the Project Crash simulation at Holmdel High School May 9.

Twelve high school students, Justin Lesbirel, James Riley, Andrew Oren, Eric Jetter, Dave McMullen, Danielle Levine, Derek Badichek, Mike Stapleton, Noelle Martines, Chris Figliolia, Jessica Leong, and Ashley McCabe, acted as car crash victims and witnesses to the feigned accident so the tragedy would seem real.

The student actors were given microphones to allow students in the audience to hear what they said after the crash. The actors sobbed and pretended as though they were in shock.

Students watched the scene unfold in the parking lot next to the school were the crashed cars were set up. Township police, firefighters and first aid squad members participated in the event, working together to "save the lives" of the students in the cars.

The scene was "as realistic as we can make it," said Principal Robert Anderson.

JEFF GRANIT Eric Jetter, 10th grade, portrays a person who was ejected from a car in a drunken-driving accident during Holmdel High School’s Project Crash May 9.

The police placed the drunken driver, played by James Riley, a senior, under arrest and put him in the back of the squad car.

One of the victims had to be extricated from a car using the Jaws of Life. Another was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp., acting as paramedics on the scene, propped up the car, punched out the windshield, and ripped open the side of the car to get a victim free.

The dead victim, played by Eric Jetter, a senior, was placed in a body bag.

When most of the action was complete, a hearse came to take the body away.

At the end of the presentation, Noelle Martines, a junior who played a reporter, summarized the event for the audience. She pulled all of the activity together so the students could make sense of the action they witnessed.

Another student from the high school, Mat Weisfeld, 18, spoke to the crowd about his brother, Jonathon, who was killed in a car accident.

"Eight years ago, May 6, 1995, there was a car driving down Crawfords Corner Road. The three students in it never came home," Weisfeld said.

"I’ve lived without a brother for the past eight years for no reason whatsoever," he said.As he choked back tears, Weisfeld urged the students to think of their families before making the decision to drive recklessly or drunk.

"They’re going to be the ones who never get closure," he said.

The death of a loved one is "something you live through every day," said Sheila Weisfeld, Mat and Jonathon’s mother.

The members of the Project Crash Committee wanted the students to witness the mock crash before the junior and senior proms and high school graduation, Badichek said.

The school’s television production class videotaped the event and plans to broadcast it within a few weeks. It will be shown on Channel 97, along with interviews of people who participated, said Martines.