LESSONS FOR SOBER GRADUATION : TEEN TEACHES PERILS OF DRIVING DRUNK.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

Rhiannon Walker matter-of-factly explained Wednesday what spurs her crusade against drunk driving. She nearly died at age 7, when her father, who was drunk, caused two collisions just minutes apart.

``I don't want that to happen to anybody else,'' said Walker, now 16 and a junior at Canyon High School.

For Walker, it isn't just talk. She started as a freshman at Antelope Valley High School organizing a lunch-hour campaign to warn students against drinking and driving.

She continued her work after transferring to Canyon a year later and Wednesday organized her annual pre-graduation exhibit to keep teens from drinking and driving.

Walker was joined by fellow students, a sheriff's deputy and a California Highway Patrol officer for a campus campaign that included Sober Graduation and SafeRides key chains, bumper stickers, pamphlets and pledge cards.

Fresh-faced teens eagerly snatched up the information, but the real attention-getter was the totaled Ford Escort on exhibit, a car that grimly illustrated the reality of drinking and driving.

Students gathered about the car, its front end pulverized when the driver, who was drunk, smashed into a tree while heading through Sand Canyon, CHP Officer Wendy Moore said.

``Imagine, that guy's head used to be there,'' one youth said as he stared through the crumbled frame of the Escort.

The students, some with added teen bravado, talked freely of drinking at parties, then calling SafeRides, where their peers provide free confidential rides home. The organization, administrated by adults and run by students, estimates that up to 80 percent of teens drink at some point during their high school years.

Junior Jackie Bullard stopped at the exhibit to sign a wallet-size pledge card, promising to avoid drinking and driving and to prevent friends from driving drunk. Bullard said she's often invited to parties to be the designated driver.

``My friends know I don't drink,'' she said.

Walker said the campaign isn't an attempt to stop under-age drinking. It's a crusade to save lives.

``I'm not promoting not drinking,'' she said. ``The reality is they're going to parties and they're going to drink. We can't stop that, but we can encourage them not to drive.''

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Canyon High School pupils view a car m angled in a drunk-driving accident Wednesday as part of a Sober Graduation program.

(2--color) Rhiannon Walker, 16, gets help from Anthony Garcia while setting up signs for an exhibit on drunk driving.

(3) Robert Martin, 18, a Canyon High School student, gets a close look at the dangers of drunk driving.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News