A wrecked car outside Tamaqua Area High School reminds students not to drink and drive this prom season.

Inside, seniors learned about the consequences of impaired and distracted driving ahead of the prom this Saturday.

The Tamaqua Area Student Government Association sponsored Prom Promise events throughout the week going into prom, including bringing in school police officers to share their experiences.

“Prom is supposed to be one of the most memorable days of your lives for good reason, not bad reasons,” Stephen Ulicny, teacher and student government adviser, told seniors Wednesday afternoon.

“Nobody intends on going out and getting into a car accident,” he said. “It’s not part of the plan, guys.”

Officer Ron Kazakavage, a former state trooper who worked in forensics, said he saw many fatal crashes, their details too gruesome to share.

“It’s a horrific thing when you see a young teenager wrapped around a tree, just mangled. You can’t even identify them and you’ve got to go tell the parents. It’s one of the worst things of the job, if not the worst thing.”

“I’d rather get into a shootout than go knock on a door and tell them their kid is dead,” Kazakavage said.

Officer Kyle Woodward asked students if they knew how much alcohol under the age of 21 or how much THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana, they can have in their system.

The students responded none, which was the correct answer.

Woodward also noted students can refuse tests to determine if they are impaired following a crash, but police can get a search warrant to force them to do a blood test, he said.

He also pointed out that in Pennsylvania in 2021, there were 9,200 crashes involving alcohol – that’s more than the number of people living in Tamaqua, Woodward said.

Woodward also lost a friend to a drunken driver in 2002. The other driver crossed the center lane and hit his friend’s vehicle head-on, he said. Every year, his daughter posts on his memorial page around the anniversary.

“That’s the saddest part,” Woodward said.

The message is simply, don’t drink and drive and don’t do drugs, they all told the seniors during the afternoon presentation sponsored by the student government.

Ulicny said if just one student heeds the message, it’ll be worth the efforts.

Throughout the week, the student government association sponsored Prom Promise events.

On Monday, red ribbons were placed on cars in the senior and faculty parking lots as a reminder not to drink and drive, Ulicny said, and on Tuesday, seniors did an indoor obstacle course using vision impairing goggles to simulate impaired driving.

Thursday is Grim Reaper Day, in which students will be selected from study halls to represent people killed in drunken driving crashes, he said.

Two to three students will be picked throughout the day to participate and have their faces painted white. They also will remain silent the remainder of the school day, he said.

The number of students the Reaper claims by the end of the day is usually striking, he said.

The last event before the prom is Key Day on Friday, when students sign a key in the school’s lobby and pledge not to drink and drive, Ulicny said. They are then entered in a drawing for a gas card, he said.

Hope’s Towing in Tamaqua provided the wrecked car outside of the school to serve as a visible reminder not to drink and drive, Ulicny said. The business has done so every year during prom time, he said.