Liz Kincaid had to walk through two lines of 80 stone-faced classmates on her way out of Lawrence High School on Tuesday.

The students, all wearing black T-shirts, represented the approximate number of people killed in drunken-driving accidents in one day in the United States.

“I was totally surprised,” said Kincaid, a senior. “It makes you sensitive to drunk driving. It’s a good time to think about it with spring break next week and graduation coming up.”

The event was called “Every 17 Minutes” because that was how often someone in the United States was killed in a drunken-driving accident when the program started a few years ago. It translates to about 30,000 people killed per year.

The students who “died” were pulled from their classes by a school resource officer and paramedic. They wore T-shirts saying “Every 17 Minutes” on the front, with “I represent one person who was killed in an alcohol-related crash” on the back. They weren’t allowed to speak or show emotion the rest of the school day.

Diane Ash, who directs substance abuse prevention programs for the Lawrence Public Schools, says now the number of people killed is closer to 17,000 per year, or about one every 30 minutes.

“We still had T-shirts left over,” she explained.

Black-clad Lawrence high school students offer red ribbons to passing students in remembrance of those killed by drunken drivers. The ribbon handout was part of the daylong event Tuesday at LHS called Every

Even though the statistics are improving, the LHS students — part of the FYI Club — said it was important to raise awareness of drunken-driving issues.

“It’s a taboo issue,” said senior Aryenish Birdie, one of the “dead.” “I think it’s a big issue, but people don’t want to talk about it.”

¢ 6News video: “Every 17 minutes” brings drinking and driving close to LHS students¢ Mothers Against Drunk Driving statistics

The students also hung posters and information about Texan Jacqueline Saburido, who was burned and disfigured in a drunken-driving accident in 1999.

Megan Hershiser, president of the FYI Club, said the drunken-driving awareness event, conducted every other year, was more effective than watching a video or having a guest speaker.

“This personalizes it for the school — they’re your best friends, the kids you see every day,” she said. “It’s a living example of what actually happens in real life.”