CEDAR CITY – Many CVHS students had an emotional experience last week as they watched some of their fellow students “killed” in a mock accident and later saw those students honored in an assembly intended to illustrate the effects of driving while impaired and texting while driving.

The mock accident, put on through a massive effort by the Safety Solutions Coalition, Cedar City Police Department, Cedar City Volunteers in Police Service, the Iron County Ambulance, the Cedar City Fire Department, Bradshaw Towing, Mishap Studios, Classic Lifeguard, and others, was Oct. 26.

Students were directed onto the lawn just west of Canyon View High School to watch the aftermath of what appeared to be a terrible head-on collision of two cars filled with students. The students in the vehicles were covered in fake blood, and some appeared to be unconscious or dead in the gruesome and all-too-realistic scene.

Emergency personal arrived and medical professionals checked each student, covering one with a sheet, and caring for others while they waited for them to be extricated from the vehicles.

Firefighters removed the roofs and doors from the cars and each of the students were removed, with several going to the hospital by ambulance, one flown out by helicopter, one taken in a body bag by Southern Utah Mortuary staff and one, who was least injured and had caused the accident by texting and driving, taken to the Iron County Correctional Facility on charges of criminally negligent homicide.

Also, throughout the day on Oct. 26, students were called out of class and had their faces painted, and they walked among their classmates the rest of the day as the walking dead, wearing black hoodies and carrying tombstones.

On Oct. 27, the participating students (the walking dead and those involved in the “accident”) were not at school. They did a service project and visited the ambulance building and the jail.

On Oct. 28, a morning assembly finished off the program, honoring those who were “killed” and emphasizing the dangers of driving while texting or impaired.

The assembly included a video put together by Mishap Studios that not only showed the accident, but showed the Life Flighted girl dying, her parents getting the news, the boy who was arrested being sentenced to prison for criminally negligent homicide, and more.

The “Choices” program, formerly known as Every 15 Minutes, is rotated between Cedar, Canyon View, and Parowan High Schools each year.

This year, 17 Canyon View students were chosen by their teachers to participate, senior Heaven-Lee Daughton said. She said though the students probably would not normally have formed friendships, they became close while they were together.

The planning was long and hard, but worth it, she said.

Junior Heather Lowry, who was declared “dead” at the mock accident, said most of the decisions were brought to their group, and they pretty much planned everything, including the assembly.

Though they knew everything that would happen, it was a lot more emotional than they had anticipated, she said. It felt like it was actually happening, and she said she lost control of her emotions when she was zipped up in the body bag.

Lowry said she hopes other students realize the accident could actually happen.

Senior Chris Lee said there were a lot of kids crying in the assembly, and he felt like it really finished things off well and made a big impact.

Daughton agreed.

“It was extremely powerful,” she said.

Senior Dayton Bronson said their absence Tuesday helped make an impact, and gave the other students a sense of what it would be like without them there.

Ginger Jensen, Miss Washington County and a 2006 CVHS graduate, said she had participated in the program as a senior and her platform is drug and underage drinking prevention.

She thinks every area should implement the program, and came up to experience it and see how it works again. She has been talking to people in Washington County about doing it, and though it is probably a long way off, she hopes getting it into their minds and making them aware of how it works and the impact it has will help, she said.

Jensen said they can’t reach everyone, but those they do reach makes it worth all the work, she said.

Helen Rosso, Safety Solutions Coalition project director, said the program would not have been possible without those listed above who helped with the accident and Ms. Johnson, Ms. Wood, Mr. Nielsen, the Iron County Correctional Facility, Judge G. Michael Westfall, Ginger Jensen, Ashley Rowland, Shantelle Williams, Sgt. David Bulloch, School Resource Office Ken Carpenter, and Wade Arave.

Lowry also thanked Rosso at the assembly, saying she has been wonderful and really made the whole thing possible.