Palmerton Area High School hosted a mock crash Wednesday morning, culminating a week of events aimed at promoting student safety ahead of prom and graduation.

The dramatic crash demonstration involved student actors, emergency responders and real-life cautionary stories from police and funeral directors.

“We do this program because this is an important time of the year for you all,” said Aquashicola Fire Department Assistant Chief Pete Beblavy, speaking to the student body. “You have prom coming up. You’re graduating — big events. And what we don’t want you to do is, in that one moment, that one night, make that bad decision.”

The message was clear and sobering throughout the mock crash program, where students witnessed a simulated drunk-driving car accident involving their classmates. Emergency vehicles arrived on the scene, and responders acted as they would in a real-life fatal crash — extricating victims, placing a student in a body bag and arresting another.

Student Mikayla Maxwell played the role of the deceased.

“It was definitely uncomfortable to know that that’s something real that happens to people every day,” she said. “It’s not just something that you see on the news and you can be the next person that it happens to. So it’s definitely eye opening.”

Her classmate Sadie Gair portrayed the drunken driver in the scene and watched her friend taken away in a body bag.

“Seeing that, even though I was in the back of the police car, was so uncomfortable for me,” Gair said. “These are real things that happen.”

Palmerton teacher and program organizer Sage Nalesnik opened the event by emphasizing that the issue is “about so much more than” just drunken driving.

“We’re not here to tell you to do this, or don’t do that,” she told students. “We’re going to give you all the information that you need in order to make an informed decision that you feel best supports yourself.”

Palmerton Police Officer Shawn Leadbetter, who is also an assistant football coach at the school, spoke about his personal experience as well.

“My first fatal crash was three months on the job,” he said. “Motorcyclist, young, 24 years old, crossed over the double yellow line and hit a car head-on and died.”

He also discussed a 2018 incident involving a 26-year-old Slatington man who hit and killed a pedestrian while under the influence of marijuana.

“I was the first one on the scene,” Leadbetter said. “I had to make the notification with the family. I had to drive over to his wife of 45 years and let her know that her husband died in a motor vehicle accident.”

The driver in that case, Leadbetter noted, was sentenced to three to five years in prison.

He emphasized the long-term consequences of a criminal record.

“You go to college, military — you’re going to need that clean criminal record,” he said. “Employers do run your criminal history and you can’t have a convicted felony.”

Leadbetter also warned about the loss of financial aid, scholarships, and college opportunities due to legal trouble.

“You get in enough trouble in college, they will take your financial aid away,” he said. “You’re probably not going to be going to that school anymore.”

The final presenters were Brooke Krupa and Adam Schisler from Schisler Funeral Homes. Both young professionals in their 20s, they spoke about the emotional and logistical impact of teen deaths.

“We probably attended more funerals of our friends growing up than we have older people who have died of natural causes,” Krupa said.

Schisler recalled a recent case in which a drunk teen driver killed two parents.

“They were away for a long weekend … an 18-year-old girl was coming home Sunday morning after a party, extremely intoxicated. Hit that family head-on going 60 mph,” he said. “However, the 18-year-old girl … nothing was wrong with her. She woke up in the hospital. It’s not only you that you have to worry about. There are lots of innocent bystanders.”

Palmerton students received wristbands Wednesday labeled “I Promise.” The message: “I promise to make good decisions. I promise that I will also do my best to protect my friends.”

“What if you were the driver in that car?” Beblavy told students as they watched the mock crash aftermath. “Or the passenger? Don’t let your friend do it. Don’t be the person I have to go tell your parents about.”

Students also attended a mini health fair on Tuesday and heard a presentation from distracted driving awareness speaker Joel Feldman.