Re-enactment of Fatal Crash Urges Teens to Drive Safely

As Clarkstown North High School seniors get ready for tonight's prom at the Pearl River Hilton, local volunteer firefighters, ambulance corps members and Clarkstown police have a unified message for them: Have fun, but be safe.

Members of the New City Fire Department, the New City Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the police department joined forces Thursday to drive home that message by staging a dramatic re-enactment of a fatal car two accident in which a teenager was driving while intoxicated. The scene with mangled cars in a parking lot adjacent to the Clarkstown North baseball field was not real, but the emotions and the tears it generated were real.

"There were some tears on the faces of the seniors," said Clarkstown Police Officer Bill Berrigan, who specializes in traffic enforcement and was one of the lead actors in Thursday's re-enacment. "It's good to see the tears because maybe the message is setting in."

The re-enactment is staged by the New City Fire Department every year at prom time to send a strong message to seniors that their lives can be forever changed – or even ended – by bad decisions, according to volunteer firefighter John Bennett, who is also a fifth-grade science teacher at Clarkstown's Strawtown Elementary School. The fire department set ups donated vehicles as if there had been a crash, and police, fire and ambulance personnel respond just as they would to a real accident.

"If we save even one life, we've done our job," said Bennett.

In the wrecked cars staged for the accident, Clarkstown North students played the roles of victims in the accident. Hundreds of students watching the re-enactment saw how Berrigan responded to the crash, got medical and rescue assistance and began his investigation. Students watched the scene in which one teen driver – who in this case said he had been at a house party – took a field sobriety test and emergency workers made efforts to rescue the victim trapped in the other car.

The re-enactment showed the drunken teen driver being arrested, handcuffed and put in a patrol car as rescue workers determined that the other teen in the simulated accident had been killed. With seniors watching in silence, emergency workers placed the "dead" teen in a black body bag and put it in an ambulance – with the next scene being the arraignment of the drunken teen driver by Clarkstown Town Judge Howard Gerber.

Gerber, who is also a Valley Cottage volunteer firefighter, said he believes the strong message of the re-enactment helps students like the Clarkstown North seniors remember they and their friends are in danger from drunken and distracted driving.

To North students like Vicky Atzl, the message of the re-enactment came through loud and clear.

"It was very realistic," Atzl said. "I think the message did get to the seniors."

For Atzl and participants in the re-enactment, the most compelling part of the presentation wasn't the wrecked cars or the lights and sirens of the emergency vehicles, but the personal pleas from the parents of a Clarkstown South High School student who was killed in a car accident in 2004 on Route 9W while riding as a passenger with fellow students. The car they were riding in crashed into a utility pole in Congers.

Killed in the accident was sophomore Ben Lasner of New City, who was a player on the South lacrosse and football teams. He was about to turn 16 and was looking forward to getting his learner's permit to drive.

Ben's parents, Marti and Howard Lasner, warned the North students how a split-second of inattentiveness behind the wheel can be deadly. Howard Lasner pointed to recent tragic accidents in Pearl River - where a 15-year-old was killed - and in Suffern, where two high school baseball players were killed.

"You never know how on any given day your life can be turned upside down," said Howard Lasner in his emotional pleas for the students to drive safely.

In addition to drawing from the experience of his own family's loss, Howard Lasner cited national safety statistics that reveal auto accidents are the leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 20.

"They say time heals all wounds, but not for Ben's family and everone who knew him," said Marti Lasner. "Please remember Ben every time you drive."

Harry Leonardatos, principal at Clarkstown North, said he could see how the re-enactment and the presentation by the Lasners affected the seniors.

"This was one of the most quiet and somber groups I've seen," Leonardatos said. "The Lasners really made it personal."

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