Perils of prom season making headlines again

From The Washington Post
By John Kelly

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ours can't be the only area household where a brief Associated Press story was torn from Monday's paper and left at a teenager's place at the dining room table. The headline: "Post-prom crash kills King George teen." It's prom season, which means it's prom-crash season, which means it's agonized-parents season. It also means that smashed cars are sprouting in front of high schools, grim tableaux to illustrate that speed kills, that alcohol kills, that texting kills. David Morton's company has dropped shattered vehicles off at about 10 Montgomery County schools in the past few weeks. He runs a Rockville-based towing firm. "The mouths drop open, the eyes open wide," David said of the students' reactions when the cars are delivered. "You can tell it's making an impact on them." Though macabre rumors attach themselves to the cars, David said he doesn't use vehicles that people have actually been killed in -- injured, yes, but not killed. He doesn't want a family member to drive by and see it. The vehicles typically come from the police abandoned auto unit. David said he supports MADD programs and SADD programs and anything else that tries to keep teens safe behind the wheel. "We're the ones that always see the aftermath," he said of tow truck drivers. "We're the ones getting them off the trees, watching the bodies come out of the cars." In Montgomery, about a half-dozen companies are authorized to tow away the vehicular remains of fatal accidents. The police call on a rotation. Since the death cars are evidence, the tow truck drivers must be certified with one of several accrediting groups. David is the president of his company, with 20 trucks on the road, but he goes out on runs, too. "Adults don't bother me too bad," David said. "It's the kids that bother me the most. Some nights, I'll get back to the house and lay in bed. I just can't sleep, and I wonder: What could have stopped that from happening?" Don't drink. Don't speed. Wear seat belts. Go to the after-prom party. Teens: Do whatever you can not to be a story ripped from the paper, next year's cautionary tale.

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