SYRACUSE -- The students of Syracuse High School probably will not be texting and driving anytime soon.
On Monday morning, the students witnessed a mock fatal crash involving a distracted driver.
The scenario featured real totaled cars, live victims, hysterical witnesses, fire engines, police cars, sirens, emergency responders and even a LifeFlight helicopter.
Syracuse Police and Fire departments, the Davis County Sheriff's Office, and Utah Highway Patrol all brought vehicles and equipment to the mock incident.
"It takes a lot to get all of these resources involved," said Syracuse Police Lt. Tracy Jensen.
"It happens quite frequently where someone is injured or killed in an accident, so hopefully this demonstration will make an impact."
Syracuse students Kaitlin Lewis and Kylin Long said it did. Several Syracuse students played victims collapsed over steering wheels or splayed out on the hood of a car.
"It should have a big impact," Lewis said.
"Seeing people that we know kind of makes it hit home.
It shows that it could happen to anyone."
Long said she had friends who recently were involved in a car accident.
"Anyone who has been in an accident or knows someone who has, can definitely identify with this," Long said. "It's such a traumatic event."
After the students observed the mock accident scene, they headed to the school's football field, where Reggie Shaw, of Tremonton, told them about a Sept. 22, 2006, double-fatal car wreck he caused by texting as he drove.
Killed in the crash were James Furfaro and Keith O'Dell, on their way to work at ATK Launch Systems when the collision with Shaw occurred on the highway between Logan and Tremonton.
Police became suspicious that Shaw was text-messaging at the time of impact because he continued to do so at the crash scene and during police interviews.
Shaw wasn't formally charged for another year because of the long delay in filling document requests through the mail with phone companies to obtain Shaw's text-messaging records.
The Utah Highway Patrol said its investigation confirmed Shaw was texting at the time of the crash.
"I never thought anything like this could happen to me," Shaw said. "But it did. And in an instant, my life and the lives of many others were changed forever."
Lt. Arnold Butcher, from the Davis County Sheriff's Office, said every 15 minutes in the United States someone is killed by a drunken or distracted driver.
"That means in the time we've been out here today, five people have died," Butcher said to the Syracuse student body.
"And we don't want that to be any of you."
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