In the auditorium of Victor High School this week, a screen projected an image of 2010 graduate Kyle Pinkard in his football uniform.
Off-stage, his voice addressed the crowd of seniors.
“You never think it could happen to you,” said Pinkard. “But it happened to me.”
He rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair.
With Victor’s prom tonight, Pinkard wanted to warn students what can happen if you drink and drive.
Pinkard was paralyzed from the waist down after he crashed his car into a utility pole on his way home from a fishing trip with his friends.
They had all been drinking, and Pinkard said he’d driven drunk before — but this time was different. His friends urged him to stop driving.
Instead, he got angry with them, and kicked them out of the car. Shortly after that, he crashed into the pole, resulting in the injury that left him in a wheelchair.
Deputy Kelly Fogarty was first on the scene that night.
“When something like this happens, it doesn’t just affect you,” she told the students.
She showed them photographs from the scene, and explained that if Pinkard’s friends hadn’t gotten out of the car, the person in the passenger seat would’ve been killed.
She described trying to find Pinkard’s family so she could inform them of his condition. His mother was four hours away on vacation, and Fogarty had to tell her over the phone what had happened. “Imagine what goes through your parent’s head,” she said.
Fogarty stayed in the hospital with Pinkard until an aunt could come be with him.
Pinkard’s presentation came after a mock car crash to let the students see what really happens on the scene of a drunk driving accident. The accident was staged, the blood fake, but the first responders, including area fire departments and Ontario County sheriff’s deputies, treated the situation as if it were real.
One student actor was pronounced dead, and two others were taken away by ambulance after they were removed from the car using the jaws of life.
Tricia Turner, a mother and a member of the school board, participated as a distraught parent who happened upon the scene and recognized her “son’s” car.
“It’s just one little dumb mistake, but it could change their lives forever,” she said.
Just like Kyle Pinkard’s life is changed forever.
“I let a lot of people down,” he told the students, urging the students to be safe. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
In the auditorium of Victor High School this week, a screen projected an image of 2010 graduate Kyle Pinkard in his football uniform.
Off-stage, his voice addressed the crowd of seniors.
“You never think it could happen to you,” said Pinkard. “But it happened to me.”
He rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair.
With Victor’s prom tonight, Pinkard wanted to warn students what can happen if you drink and drive.
Pinkard was paralyzed from the waist down after he crashed his car into a utility pole on his way home from a fishing trip with his friends.
They had all been drinking, and Pinkard said he’d driven drunk before — but this time was different. His friends urged him to stop driving.
Instead, he got angry with them, and kicked them out of the car. Shortly after that, he crashed into the pole, resulting in the injury that left him in a wheelchair.
Deputy Kelly Fogarty was first on the scene that night.
“When something like this happens, it doesn’t just affect you,” she told the students.
She showed them photographs from the scene, and explained that if Pinkard’s friends hadn’t gotten out of the car, the person in the passenger seat would’ve been killed.
She described trying to find Pinkard’s family so she could inform them of his condition. His mother was four hours away on vacation, and Fogarty had to tell her over the phone what had happened. “Imagine what goes through your parent’s head,” she said.
Fogarty stayed in the hospital with Pinkard until an aunt could come be with him.
Pinkard’s presentation came after a mock car crash to let the students see what really happens on the scene of a drunk driving accident. The accident was staged, the blood fake, but the first responders, including area fire departments and Ontario County sheriff’s deputies, treated the situation as if it were real.
One student actor was pronounced dead, and two others were taken away by ambulance after they were removed from the car using the jaws of life.
Tricia Turner, a mother and a member of the school board, participated as a distraught parent who happened upon the scene and recognized her “son’s” car.
“It’s just one little dumb mistake, but it could change their lives forever,” she said.
Just like Kyle Pinkard’s life is changed forever.
“I let a lot of people down,” he told the students, urging the students to be safe. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”
