Friday, April 18, 2008 3:52 PM CDT
Mock crash attempts to scare Okaw Valley teens from drunk driving this prom season
By VALERIE WELLS, Staff Writer
BETHANY — Preston Ozier might have a future in theater.
At a mock crash staged at Okaw Valley High School on Thursday, 5-year-old Preston played a victim of a drunk driver, thrown from the car by the impact.
“I just laid really still,” Preston said, and indeed he did, never moving a muscle even when a rescue worker picked him up and ran with him to the ambulance.
Preston’s dad, Phil, said he and his wife, Lisa, are youth ministers and wanted to help with the presentation in the hopes it would influence the students to make smart decisions this weekend as they celebrate prom.
The scenario was that Gatlin Miller had a few too many at an after-prom party, but his friends let him drive them anyway. When an animal ran in front of him and he swerved to avoid it, he collided head-on with the Oziers’ car, containing Phil, Lisa, Preston and baby Lindsey.
During the presentation, the watching students talked, laughed and catcalled.
Moultrie County Sheriff Jeff Thomas told the students afterward that he was disappointed they didn’t seem to be taking the lesson to heart.
“You have no personal connection,” he said, but someone was there who did.
All talking ceased abruptly when Travis Mundy rolled his wheelchair in front of the bleachers to speak to the teens. Four-and-a-half years ago, Mundy, 23, got into a car with a friend who was drunk — Mundy was, too — and in the resulting crash he was paralyzed from the waist down.
“I am here to scare you,” he said to the suddenly silent audience. “I hope it scares you. I hope just looking at me scares you.”
The last thing he remembers about that night, he said, is sitting at his kitchen table around 9 p.m. and talking about going to bed, but the crash happened at midnight. His next memory is waking up in the hospital and not being able to use his left arm or move his legs. Using graphic detail, Mundy described his injuries and recovery, pausing often because he still has severe pain.
“I didn’t want to be alive,” he said. “I didn’t want to kill myself, but I didn’t want to be alive.”
He had to sell his home and live with his parents, who had extensive remodeling done to accommodate his wheelchair. For weeks, his mother had to help him bathe, and he had to relearn how to do everything, beginning with feeding and dressing himself. Many of his friends have not been able to handle his changed circumstances and are no longer around, he said.
“Looking at me, you may think it’s hard (to be paralyzed),” he said. “You have no idea.” He reached beneath his seat and produced a catheter and a diaper. The catheter, he said, has to be inserted 9 inches deep every time he needs to empty his bladder. The diaper is because he has no bladder control.
“Do you remember what I said started this? One drink. One bad decision.”
As students returned to classes, almost all paused to shake Mundy’s hand.
Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.
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