Calhoun hosts juvenile court’s Fatal Vision
Published 6:00 pm Friday, March 28, 2025
Photo by Lanell Smith | Lowndes County Sheriff’s Deputy Garrett Harrell conducts a nystagmus field sobriety test on Makayla Saffold.
Photo by Keisha Lee | State and local first responders partner to give students a “fatal vision.”
Photo by Keisha Lee | Virtual reality goggles give students a taste of driving impaired.
Photo by Lanell Smith | Mental health professional Brett Crosby from Beacon Behavioral Hospital in Luverne describes the effects of drug and alcohol use.
Photo by Keisha Lee | Lowndes County students participate in a fatal car crash simulation
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Just ahead of spring break, high school students glimpsed the potential outcomes of substance abuse, and viewed what can happen when they chose to drive impaired through the Lowndes County Juvenile Court’s Fatal Vision event.
Chief Juvenile Probation Officer and event coordinator Keisha Lee said the annual event, launched in 2015, is a preventative resource aimed at helping students gain the knowledge the need for making good decisions about substance use.
“I want to put a lot of preventative resources [in their hands] and to help them get the awareness of underage driving and driving distracted,” Lee said. “We try to get them as engaged as possible, bringing speakers who are engaging and interacting with the kids.”
The program featured a host of speakers who talked with students about the effects of drugs, alcohol, nicotine and other substances on the young brain. One of those, Brent Cosby from Beacon Behavioral Hospital in Luverne described for students the lasting impacts of substance use that begins at an early age.
“A survey completed by high school students said 74% of you guys will drink before graduation,” Crosby said. “And 95% of adult alcoholics reported drinking at your age.”
As Crosby outlined a few long-lasting consequences of alcohol misuse — liver damage, mental confusion, brain fog, poor judgement, memory loss, addiction — he also described what can happen when teens partake in drug use, vaping, huffing and other common substance use.
“You can get high off anything under pressure,” Crosby said. “But when you’re huffing, you’re mixing more substance and getting less oxygen. Your brain has to have oxygen to survive. When you do that, your heart rate slows, you can lose consciousness and have respiratory failure.”
Lowndes County Public Schools Superintendent Samita Jeter said the annual event provides students the facts they need to make informed decisions.
“Children of this age have to learn to make decisions and the decisions they make, they have to live with,” Jeter said. “They have to learn about these things in order to decide, ‘Should I do it or not? Should I try it or not?’”
The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) was on hand and Drive Safe Alabama coordinator Allison Green outlined four main safety messages ALDOT conveys to young drivers.
“We talk with students about how to stay safe on the road,” Green said. “We talk about wearing your seatbelt and never driving impaired by alcohol or drugs. We also say, “Don’t speed, because speeding is the leading contributing factor in most fatal crashes’ and ‘Don’t drive distracted, because that is a growing issue for students and adults.’”
The agency supplied impaired driving goggles, a virtual reality experience allowing students to emulate driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or other substances.
According to Lowndes County Sheriff Chris West, the event provided students with eye-opening, tangible experiences which will help them understand the dangers of driving impaired.
“They hear [about impaired driving] from their parents and teachers all the time,” West said. “But Lt. Jeremy Burkett [with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency] brought some videos and photographs so they could actually see the results of choices they can make. I think it’s a lot different when you have emergency responders here who come out sharing their experiences.”
