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OGDEN -- What appeared to be a terrible accident outside DaVinci Academy in Ogden turned out to be a fake. Everyone but the students was in on it.
It turned out to be a traumatic experience for some, yet a lesson about the dangers of texting and driving that many students say they won't forget.
The Standard-Examiner reports students saw two crashed vehicles outside the school at 9:15 a.m. Thursday. They went to see what had happened and realized one of the people involved was a classmate, 18-year-old Brandon Reardon.
Reardon, with fake blood on his face, stared blankly through a mashed windshield at the beige minivan that supposedly hit his car. Paramedics load him onto a backboard.
Pictures from the Standard-Examiner show the students' grief was real.
Then paramedics released Reardon from the backboard and students realized the wreck wasn't real.
Students had a range of emotions about the stunt. One of them told the paper the organizers could have put anybody in the car. He says everybody at the school knows everybody, and he didn't appreciate the stunt.
Other students took the lesson in stride, saying it really hit home and is something they'll never forget.
The paper reports Ogden Auto Body donated the pre- wrecked cars and emergency workers were set to talk about the dangers of distracted driving following the fake accident. Two days' worth of coursework was planned around the incident.
The DaVinci Academy's special education teacher, Mike Kelly, was one of the organizers. He said they wanted to teach an important lesson the students would remember.
