Teens warned about drinking, driving MDI High graduate tells students about her bad experience behind the wheel

BAR HARBOR – The crowd of sophomores fidgeted and giggled Thursday afternoon in the Mount Desert Island Regional High School auditorium during a special assembly on teens and responsible driving.

But when recent graduate Kaylie Rosborough stood before them and recounted the story of her drunken driving accident last winter, they quickly grew silent and attentive.

“You put everyone in danger when you drive drunk,” she said. “The punishment I had was nothing compared to what could have happened.”

Rosborough, 18, of Mount Desert told the group she had been playing drinking games with her friends for several hours before getting into her car last February. When police tried to pull her over, she led them on a high-speed chase on the Seawall Road in Tremont, finally crashing in the village of Bass Harbor.

“The car probably flipped six times,” she said. “My blood alcohol level was .18, and that was a couple hours after the accident.” Drivers face operating under the influence charges when their blood alcohol level registers above .08.

Rosborough said that repercussions of her poor decision that night included disappointing her parents, having her insurance rates raised to the point where she can’t afford to drive, and, ultimately, spending three days in jail.

“I don’t think anyone expected it out of me,” she said. “The only smart thing I did that night was to put on my seat belt.”

The college freshman warned her former classmates that they couldn’t be too careful about drinking and driving.

“Of course kids are going to drink and stuff,” she said. “But you have to be responsible about it.”

It’s a truth that hits uncomfortably close to home for the high school students. Just last summer Blaine Alley, 17, died after a high-speed crash near the head of Mount Desert Island. Alcohol was a factor in that accident, according to police officials.

And between 1999 and 2004, six other island teenagers died in car crashes that were attributed to driver inexperience, slippery roads or high speeds.

“Due to many cases on the island of students dying in bad car accidents, we’re like Tom Sawyer,” Assistant Principal Pam Bush said, referring to the fictional character’s chance to watch his own funeral. “We can’t ignore the opportunity it provides us to learn from these mistakes, so we don’t repeat them. Because it’s overwhelming.”

The group of sophomores – many of whom will take driver’s education classes this year – reacted with some teenage bravado to a movie that graphically showed all the blood and guts of a hospital trauma center that cared for teens after alcohol-related accidents. But hands flew up across the room when a speaker asked how many of them knew someone who had died in a car accident.

“It’s so close to home,” Mariel Duym, 15, of Trenton said. “You know everybody. … My brother’s friend was with Clint [Chernosky] in the accident. They were just having fun and driving and then they went into a tree.”

Chernosky was just 16 when he died in a 2003 speed-related accident in the village of Somesville.

Thomas Van Gorder, 16, of Tremont signed his name to the school’s driving pledge after the assembly was done. The pledge asks that drivers act responsibly – and never drive under the influence, or ride with drivers who are.

Though Thomas said he found the movie’s graphic gore “made you think about stuff,” it was Rosborough’s testimony that hit close to home.

“It shows that anybody can get into an accident,” he said. “You don’t have to be one of the bad kids.”

Colby Richards, 15, of Trenton said the assembly made an impression on her, too.

“Just to be careful when you’re driving,” Colby, who has her driver’s permit, said. “It’s really scary to think about how an accident can affect your life in a big way. And your parents, and your friends.”