She has few photos of her late father, and fewer memories.
But the crash covered in alcohol’s fingerprints that killed Robert States has stuck with Ashley Thompson.
Evidence? The phone number she tells friends they can call anytime, day or night, if they’re drunk and need a ride home.
“Thankfully they haven’t,” said Ashley, acknowledging her friends’ respect for her loss and chuckling at her own appreciation for sleep.
More proof of the legacy created by her father’s death: “My mom’s been really strict with me because of that,” Ashley said.
And finally, the Friday SKID (Stopping Kids Intoxicated Driving) event that took six months to prepare.
“I knew I wanted to do something on drunk driving,” the Heritage High School student said of the senior project she authored with classmate Michelle Siegal.
Siegal said she was attracted to the project because of her own dad’s near-miss on a night in college.
“He was drinking and driving and went between two trees instead of hitting them,” Siegal said. “I wanted to fix the problem, starting with my school.”
Founded by a retired deputy from Washington County, Ore., Friday was the first time SKID was presented north of the Columbia River.
Unsuspecting Heritage students were shepherded to the school’s track at 9 a.m. to find two draped cars and loudspeakers blaring party music.
The curtains were pulled back to reveal the scene: two cars had collided, leaving a mangled mess of metal and bodies. One student was dead, thrown from the front seat of a red Corvette. His body was spread across the car’s hood for most of the hourlong demonstration.
The car’s simulated driver, Thompson, was run through a series of sobriety tests and ultimately arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.
“When I see people who are drinking and driving, it makes me think, ‘How stupid can you be?’” Ashley said by phone before the performance. “Obviously it can happen to anyone.”
Gasps and sobs
Vancouver firefighters pried at the doors off a small green car. A group of the two vehicles’ passengers stood nearby, recounting the crash during interviews with Clark County sheriff’s deputies. One student was transported from the scene by a Life Flight helicopter.
Gasps and sobs could be heard throughout the presentation. Some were prerecorded, some not.
“I think everyone will take something out of this,” said junior Kaitlyn Tuholski, wiping tears from her reddened cheeks. “This could happen on prom night.”
Kaitlyn’s cousin Garret Grayson played the role of the deceased. “It was pretty emotional for me,” she said.
The program’s impact is borne out in statistics.
Over 12 years, it has reached more than 79,000 students. Among them, three have later died in seven alcohol-related collisions.
59 out of 100,000
Nationwide, according to a statistic cited by SKID founder Tim Moore, 59 of every 100,000 teens die in a drunken-driving crash.
“We’re less than 1 percent of the national average,” Moore said.
About 1,000 Heritage juniors and seniors took in the Friday program made possible by about $75,000 in time and resources donated by the Vancouver Fire Department, the sheriff’s office, Life Flight, American Medical Response, the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office and Evergreen Memorial Gardens.
Ashley and Michelle won a more than $1,500 grant from State Farm Insurance to buy microphones and session time in a recording studio. Members of the school’s DECA club acted in the skit.
As planned, the program was held a week before the school’s prom, with graduation looming. Students signed pieces of paper pledging not to drink and drive, which will be linked together and hung at the year-end events.
“This is a time when we need to make good decisions,” Michelle said during a debriefing inside the school’s gym. “Think about the people you care about; do the right thing.”
Ashley warned her classmates not to think, “It won’t happen to me.”
Said Ashley: “I’m sure that’s what my dad thought.”
Bob Albrecht: 360-735-4522; bob.albrecht@columbian.com.
