North Forsyth High Holds "Ghost Out" to Promote Safer Driving

It was a scene that no human being ever wants to witness: fire trucks, sirens and panic. But on Thursday, this was the scene at , as the students and faculty, as well as many Forsyth County first responders, participated in an exercise entitled Ghost Out.

A Ghost Out is an alcohol and drug awareness program demonstrated in hundreds of high schools across the nation, aimed at informing teen drivers of the risks of driving while distracted or impaired.

According to the National Highway Traffic Administration, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in America.

A first for North Forsyth High, it won't be a morning that is soon forgotten. The intention of Ghost Out is to attempt to re-enact the chain of events surrounding a fatal accident from the crash to the funeral of the victim.

The re-enactment began with the discovery of an accident that has just taken place. A panicked young woman realizes that she has just stumbled upon a serious wreck involving her friends and peers, and the worst is confirmed when police arrive. One of her friends has died in the horrific crash.

It took the better part of an hour to free the injured students as well as the deceased teen from the wreckage. During this time, a narrator described what was occurring, and recited some sobering statistics regarding teen drivers and deaths among high school students. The injuries to each victim in this accident were described in detail, leaving nothing to the imagination. The most heart wrenching part of the exercise, and perhaps the most eye opening to those in attendance, was the circling of a character representing the deceased.

Dressed in a black cape and pale macabre makeup, "death" walked in monotonous circles around the accident scene, looking out into the audience with a hopeless sadness. He watched the attempts to revive the first victim in vain, and witnessed the rescue of the other occupants of the vehicle. He lingered when the deceased young woman was gingerly unloaded from the vehicle, placed on a stretcher, and prepared by the coroner for her transfer to the waiting ambulance.

Kristen Muse, whose daughter attends NFHS, was visibly shocked by the events unfolding.

"The removal of the body was the hardest part to watch. You just don't think these things will ever happen, but they do. And it truly breaks my heart."

When the funeral procession and hearse arrived at the burial site, the exercise seemed to hit home for some of those watching. Tears and hugs were evident in the audience, who were watching from a hill adjacent to the scene of the crash.

"That's the idea," says Forsyth County School Safety Manager Chris Grimes. "Hopefully these kids see what can happen, and get a bit of a wake up call."