PAVE at Bigfork High School

Amy Campbell warned the crowd she was going to cry.

Bigfork High School students sat in somber silence as they listened to her revisit the gruesome details of her brother’s death from drunk driving.

It was 2008. Campbell’s brother, Sean Purcell, and his friend Matt Emslie had been watching a Montana Grizzlies football game, and having a few drinks, before they hopped in a car and decided not to buckle up.

The car was going about 50 when it hit a berm. “Even at a moderate rate of speed, the worst can happen,” Campbell said.

She described how Emslie was ejected from the vehicle, which then rolled over him. And how her brother, whose seat was reclined, was only halfway ejected. Both were killed in the accident.

“They chose to drink and drive, that caused the accident,” Campbell said. “And they chose not to wear their seatbelts, and that cost them their lives.”

And yes, she cried as she told the story. Through her tears, Campbell described her parents’ arrival on the scene. They saw a body covered with a sheet, and recognized their son’s shoes.

“We share our story to help you make a better decision,” Campbell told the students. Campbell’s story was one piece of the PAVE assembly last Wednesday.

Travis Bruyer, Flathead County Sheriff Office community resource officer, brought the Positive Actions for Vikings and Valkyries Everyday — or PAVE — program to Bigfork in last fall.

The PAVE program was something Bruyer had learned about and decided to bring to Bigfork Schools. “We really needed something unique for the students,” Bruyer said.

The program encourages high school students to make the best choices possible in their lives, particularly when it comes to driving.

Students have signed a pledge to practice safe habits such as wearing seatbelts, not texting while driving, and not using drugs or alcohol. “We’re not asking anything we don’t ask of our own adults,” Bruyer said.

Students in good academic standing who uphold the pledge will be entered into a drawing for a 1993 Saturn. The car, which was donated by a family, has received a makeover from Bigfork students.

Bruyer said the sheriff’s office and the community have an obligation to set standards for high school students, who are at an age when they are subject to the most risk for injury in driving and are still developing decision-making skills.

According to a Montana Department of Transportation 2012 data summery the majority of driving fatalities involved adults between the ages of 20 to 29. There were 113 alcohol-related fatalities and 118 unbelted fatalities. And 223 crashes involved drivers using their cell phones. After Bruyer brought the program to Bigfork High School some of the students became PAVE activists.

“There was this group that just really ran with it. I did not expect to see that,” Bruyer said. “I was blown away by what they did with balancing humor and education.”

Student Daniel McVay led the assembly.

“The idea is to make good choices on and off the road,” he said.