Glass shattered, metal mangled... then it was silent. On May 15, 500 Rockville High juniors and seniors, as part of their seminar class, ventured out to the school’s front lawn for a mock crash. Fourteen Peer Advocates, dressed in black t-shirts and chalk-white faces for “White-Out Day,” (depicting people killed in drunk driving crashes) stood in front of two tarps. The tarps were pulled away from the two cars donated by Leveille’s Auto Recycling in Somers. One classmate lay dead; she had gone through the car’s windshield. Two others in the back were injured – one needed to be taken away by LifeStar. The driver had been driving drunk, following a prom after-party . The driver of the second car, who was able to walk around and consoled the mother of the teen “killed” in the accident, was eventually placed on a backboard herself and taken to the hospital.

It was prom night – a night to remember . It would be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Vernon police, fire and ambulance arrived, working to extricate the passengers of the Pontiac Bonneville. Life-Star landed to take one of the injured passengers, played by senior Rachel Brady, to the hospital. But for Beth Vorchheimer, it was a hearse that picked her up. Her mother, Sue, stood by helplessly, watching as Ladd-Turkington-Carmon Funeral Home employees put her daughter in a body bag.

Students in the crowd cried, as they watched their friends portray the victims .

“That was intense,” said senior Lisa Crabb.

“Those are my friends – we go to school with those people,” said senior Crystal Hayes.

“It was just really effective having everything – the ambulance and police officers ,” said senior Katie Petersen.

But it wasn’t over. The girls, along with their classmates, were about to hear from a mother who has suffered the heartbreak of losing a child. For Sherry Chapman, it wasn’t a mock crash that took the life of her teenage son, Ryan, in December, 2002.

Chapman is one of the founding members of “! MPACT,” or “Mourning Parents Act,” a non-profit organization with a mission to eliminate tragedies caused by inexperienced drivers through awareness, education and legislation . The parents of three teens developed !MPACT after their children were killed within 11 days of one another in three separate accidents.

A late-night phone call changed Chapman’s life. It was a hospital nurse, calling to tell Chapman that Ryan had been in an accident. “He’s with the trauma unit,” the nurse said. “It’s serious .”

When Chapman arrived at the hospital , she and her husband waited for word on Ryan’s condition. A doctor and nurse came to deliver the news.

“‘ I’m sorry – he rallied there for awhile,’” Chapman remembered the doctor saying. “I knew that meant Ryan had fought very hard.”

The doctor suggested seeing Ryan for one last time for “closure.”

“I was afraid to see him – a mother always makes things right for their kids, and I couldn’t make things right,” Chapman said.

He was a ghastly whitish-grey color, Chapman said of her 19-year-old son. She spoke of planning a funeral and trying to decide what kind of casket a teenager would want and where Ryan should be laid to rest.

“I visit the cemetery almost every day,” Chapman said. “This is how I care for my boy. Instead of making him dinner or doing his laundry, I make things right for him at the cemetery,” she said, referring to cleaning up around his grave site and fixing toppled-over planters .

Ryan was a passenger in a car driven by an 18-year-old drunk driver. That driver is in prison for manslaughter.

“What you never want to be responsible for is killing your friends,” said Chapman, who asked the students to complete a “homework assignment.” “Hug your parents tonight – I’d give anything for that,” she said.

Heather Faulkner, 17, walked out of the presentation teary-eyed .

“I just felt bad – she’s a mom,” she said. “I know not to drink and drive – I wouldn’t want my mom to have... ”she trailed off. “If it affected me, it definitely affected someone else.”

“The purpose was to provide a graphic portrayal of a drunk-driving crash for kids to realize they are not invincible and they need to make good decisions ,” said Youth Counselor Kim McTighe. The program had been in the planning process since last fall and included members of the school’s Peer Advocates, the school’s advanced drama class, The Drug and Alcohol Prevention Council, Vernon Youth Services, school administration and Vernon’s emergency services.