Since April 2007, traffic accidents have claimed the lives of three Princeton High School seniors, and the most-recent fatal wreck occurred about three weeks ago.

Katlyn Bell died March 9 in a wreck at Brogden and Old Sanders roads. Gilbert “Gib” Martin was killed in a wreck last September, and James Cook died last April while on his way to get a tuxedo for the prom.

While the pain of losing a classmate to a car accident lingers at the school, Town Commissioner Brandon Holland, who is also a Wilson’s Mills police officer, said he felt like he needed to do something to shake up teen drivers after the most-recent fatality.

He put together a presentation to remind students of safe-driving practices and the potential consequences of bad driving decisions. Princeton held the event just before the prom.

Also, students at another Johnston County high school, West Johnston, were exposed to a similar experience just before their prom.

The March 20 event included speakers who represented law enforcement as well as a Fayetteville mother, Lisa Vogel, whose son was killed in a car accident. The young man’s mistake, Vogel said, was to get into a car driven by another young man who had been drinking.

Besides speeches and videos, the presentation included a mock accident, put together by the state Highway Patrol and local rescue crews. Students saw firsthand how crews respond to an accident and got a glimpse of how it can affect the victim’s family members.

That is, those students who were paying attention to what was happening on the football field, where the “accident” took place. Some students deemed they had other, more important things to do, such as speaking with their friends or laughing at the “actors” on the field.

However, when it was announced that a real accident had taken place at the same time as the mock one, even those who just minutes before had been snickering fell silent.

Fortunately, two Princeton teens survived the crash that ripped off half of their car.

And maybe their West Johnston counterparts finally understood the significance of last week’s mock crash.