Shattered Dreams

By: Toni Walker

Editor

news@steelcountrybee.com

Tragedy hit the community in the form of a three car accident involving nine local high school students recently. Local law enforcement investigating the accident determined that the majority of those students involved had participated in what is typically known as senior skip day prior to the accident.

It was determined that alcohol and drugs were a part of the party, and factored into the crash. Hughes Springs senior Jaren Jones was arrested and charged with Intoxicated Vehicular Manslaughter in the death of Meagan Hendricks, who was a passenger in one of the vehicles.

No, this is not an actual report. Jones, Hendricks, and many other area high school students recently took part in a program known as “Shattered Dreams,” a Texas Department of Transportation program aimed at showing teens the dangers and consequences of impaired driving.

Irene Webster, of TxDoT, directed the program, which takes volunteers from local schools and uses them to set up an incident where teens are “under the influence” of drugs and alcohol and then get behind the wheel. “It takes a lot of planning, and a lot of volunteer hours. But if we can save one person’s life, if we can make one person rethink those decisions, then it is worth it,” said Webster.

Students from Daingerfield, Paul Pewitt, Chapel Hill, and Hughes Springs were involved in the production. Students staged and videoed a “party scene,” then enacted a crash scene that was caused by driving under the influence. The students also enacted all of the possible consequences of driving under the influence, from the death of a passenger, to the arrest, booking, trial, and sentencing of the offender.

Shane Sibley, of Pewitt CISD, handled the video aspect of the program, and edited the scenes together into a 30-plus minute movie that was shown to juniors and seniors from the four schools involved in the production. Students originally were supposed to actually view the crash scene and arrest live, but due to the possibility of rain, those scenes were videoed and added into the production.

Following the video, students heard a victim impact speaker from Longview, Amy Jo Robinson. Robinson and her daughter were struck by a drunk driver. Three weeks later, Robinson’s daughter died from her injuries suffered in the accident. She told the students that her offender received 99 years on prison, while she received a lifetime sentence of living without her daughter.

The program was an all-volunteer effort, from the students all the way to the emergency personnel and responders. Webster acknowledged all the groups who volunteered to make the production a success. Morris County Sheriff’s Department, Daingerfield Police Department, and Texas Department of Safety volunteered their time for the law enforcement portion of the program. Mount Pleasant Fire Department and Titus Regional Medical Center provided the emergency responders, and Harrison Funeral Home also volunteered their time. Rychlick’s Towing provided the vehicles for the crash, and Northeast Texas Community College provided to location for the crash scene.

Webster also thanked the schools for allowing their students to both be a part of the program, and to come see the finished product, and Shane Sibley for putting the videography together.

Shattered Dreams is a program that is aimed at showing teenagers the harmful effects and outcomes of drinking and driving. The campaign also considers all impaired driving, be it by drugs alcohol, or mobile devices. The aim is to show them real life scenarios that will hit home with them, because it involves people they know, without the tragedy of someone actually being killed or injured.

All students involved in the productions are alive and well, no one was truly injured or killed. Jones’ incarceration was merely for effect, and he is finishing out his senior year, as is Hendricks.