Prom night is supposed to be a night made of dreams, not nightmares.
For one morning, seniors at North Hills High School found out what tragedy could befall them if they chose to drink and drive on prom night.
Their morning began with an outdoor program where a classmate had wrecked his car after drinking on prom night -- killing his girlfriend.
"It was really unnerving to be in the car and seeing all of this unfold with paramedics," said Mark Ringeling, 18, of Ross, who portrayed a drunk driver at North Hills' annual mock crash.
"It was really a scary experience."
The North Hills mock crash program took place in front of 440 seniors May 1. The program, which consisted of a mock car crash organized by local police and EMS and an assembly presenting alcohol awareness information from UPMC Passavant, was designed to warn teens about the affects of drinking and driving -- particularly in celebration of prom and graduation.
"I think it may open some eyes so students realize the impact that alcohol has on teenagers," said Michelle Medic, district Students Against Destructive Decisions sponsor. "They don't realize all the different parts that come into play when you decide to drink or get into a car with people who are drinking."
For the first time this year, North Hills students implemented the "Every Fifteen Minutes" program, which illustrates the statistic that every 15 minutes, someone dies in an alcohol-related crash.
The program is very powerful, said Jennifer Swab, training coordinator for Ross/West View Emergency Medical Service Ambulance Authority. Throughout the day, police officers from Ross and West View went into a classroom every 15 minutes to pull a student out. They then told the class a tale -- based on a true incident of how that student died in an alcohol related crash. For the remainder of the day, the student could not talk to anyone and wore a t-shirt branding them a statistic.
It brought tears to the eyes of Chrissy Harding, 18, of Ross.
"It made everything real because you never think anything like that can happen to you," Harding said. "No matter where I walked or looked in the hallways, I saw someone with that shirt on. It kind of showed you that that's how many people out there that are affected by this."
Brittany Bittner and Katie Reed were two of the 48 statistics who took a vow of silence for the day. Both were pulled out of class early to participate and had to spend the majority of their day mute.
Reed hoped the project, en masse, would affect her fellow seniors and make them realize that any of them could be among the more than 1,500 teens that die in alcohol related crashes each year.
"I feel it impacted the senior students to make the right decision in the future and to think twice about your actions," said Reed, 18, of Ross. "Seeing your fellow students in the crashes or shirts, it does really make you think about those things."
For Bittner, the experience wasn't just educational.
"It was really cool being a part of it," said Bittner, 18, of Ross. "I felt like I was actually standing for someone who had passed away and killed by a drunk driving incident. I felt like I really made a difference."