RBR Project Prom Program Cautions Teens to Make Smart Decisions

RBR Project Prom Program Cautions Teens to Make Smart Decisions while Driving

Fallen State Trooper’s Mom Tugs at Teenager Heart Strings to Help Save Lives

Little Silver: For 12 years, the Red Bank Regional High School District (RBR) has conducted the Project Prom Program to encourage RBR seniors to take caution when driving during prom season, encouraging them to make wise choices. This year’s program took place on May 24, one week before prom, when the emergency services of Little Silver and Shrewsbury conducted a mock crash using three cars donated by Red Bank Recycling. Role-playing student victims lay unconscious in mangled automobiles while the fire department personnel employed the frightening “jaws of life” to extricate the injured and whisked them off by ambulance, and medi-vac helicopter. The latter prop was provided by the New Jersey State Police.

One of the role-playing victims, Olivia Smelas of Little Silver, commented, “It was really scary and I can’t even imagine ever being in an accident like that, but that it is a huge reality for people my age.”

Following the mock crash, the students attended an assembly where Defense Attorney Pete O’Mara explained the legal penalties for driving while under the influence or even being in a car when others are in possession of an illegal substance.

Then, Donna Setaro made her presentation on the Move Over Awareness Campaign (M.A.R.C. 39:4-92.2) named for her son Marc Castellano, a state trooper killed on a New Jersey highway while performing his job. The Move Over Law seeks to protect emergency workers while working on highways. It requires motorists to slow down or change lanes as they approach stationary emergency vehicles, tow trucks and other highway safety vehicles displaying red, blue and/or amber flashing lights. Violators pay a fee of $100 to $500 depending on their driving record.

Using shocking video clips of actual emergency management personnel struck by cars while doing their jobs on dangerous New Jersey highways, and pictures of her son, an accomplished, educated and proud state trooper, husband and father, she reeled her audience in. You could hear a pin drop in the RBR auditorium as she pulled one memory after another from her black garment bag:…the first outfit he wore as a baby coming home from the hospital…his state trooper shirt--the symbol of a dream achieved to serve his community and support his family…the thank you letter at his graduate school graduation—the last note she would ever receive from her son…and his Christmas stocking hung on the hearth with all the others seven Christmas after his passing, its sole contents, a note she wrote to her son to detail all that went on that year in his absence. She vividly tells the story of the worst day of her life in 2010 when her son was called to a car that ran out of gas on Route 195 in Howell. The driver, a known and repeat criminal offender, had been pursued by police for driving over 100 mph. She gave an excuse for her reckless driving of being kidnapped by a man with a gun who escaped in to the woods off the highway shoulder. While her son stayed with the car as other officers investigated the alleged kidnapper, a young man struck Trooper Castellano.

He was killed for two reasons, she told the students, “the lady lied and needlessly put officers in danger, and a great kid, a West Point cadet, took his eyes off the road and hit him.”

Following the presentation, the students lined up one after another, many drying tears, to give her a hug.

The program was coordinated by its originator, Little Silver Police Sergeant Pete Gibson, assisted by RBR School Resource Officer Rob Chenoweth and the RBR Student Assistance Counselor Lori Todd. During the week of prom, Shrewsbury and Union Beach officers visited the senior classrooms to detail the fines and penalties for drunk driving and to share national statistics with the students. Students were also asked to drive a golf cart around an obstacle course while wearing fatal-vision goggles to simulate intoxication.

RBR senior and class president Michael Eulner commented on the program, “The whole idea that this has been going on for 12 years shows the commitment the police and school have about the prom season when people can make decisions that can change people’s lives. Seeing it first hand was eye-opening. I got chills through my whole body.”

He added, “But it was not just today, Mrs. Todd has brought us lessons throughout the year that really stick with you.”