The original award-winning Dying High gave viewers an unblinking look at what happens when teens overdose on alcohol or other drugs. This new program moves onto the nation’s highways, where viewers follow an ambulance as it responds to a multi-vehicle accident involving teens and drugs. Viewers learn the driver severed his spinal cord and is now a quadriplegic. In addition to this compelling footage, viewers are briefed on the range of devastating outcomes resulting from driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Includes interviews with real teens who faced the horror of a drugged driving crash. Program urges students to think about the impact their actions have on loved ones and friends when making decisions about drugs and driving. Clearly gives your students the jarring realization that "This could happen to me."
Includes:
video, plus teacher’s resource book, student handouts in digital format
Reviews
Snippets of stories about teenagers dying as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs are presented, with the focus on one horrific highway accident that is also told in fragments. The identities of the four victims in the car are never revealed, and viewers are not told what type of drugs they took. The "viewer discretion advised" message should be heeded, as the film chronicles every detail of how the surviving and deceased victims were extracted from the car. Interviews with doctors and EMTs are interspersed with footage of the rescue. In interviews, doctors provide lengthy explanations about what happens to organs, the spine, and the brain in a high-impact car accident. An abundance of medical information is provided, but very little concrete advice is presented about DUI, designated drivers, and navigating peer pressure to use drugs. The film does make a powerful impact, and at the conclusion an EMT raises the question, "Is it really worth drinking if it means not having one of your friends with you…forever?"
- Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College Queens, Long Island City, NY
School Library Journal
Highly Recommended Partly set in a number of ERs, this film shows the devastating effects of people drinking, drugging and driving. The DVD consists of several episodes of young people (high school and college levels) taking drugs and/or drinking, then driving and ending up in gruesome accidents, resulting in death or dismemberment. Interspersed throughout the film are interviews with various legal and health professions talking about the consequences of alcohol/drug use in connection with an activity like driving, which requires close concentration and the ability to judge distances. The bottom line is: Don’t drink (or drug) and drive.
Highly recommended for high-school audiences and above.
- Buzz Haughton, Shields Library, University of California at Davis
Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)