TEENS FEEL GRIM LESSON WORTH THE PAIN; DRIVER'S ED STUDENTS AT HART HIGH SCHOOL VIEW SLIDES OF CRASHES.

Byline: Cynthia Teed Daily News Staff Writer

Juniors in Dave Munroe's driver's ed classes braced for the worst Wednesday morning during a grim slide presentation taught by a nurse who knows first hand the tragedy of drinking and driving.

Established last year by Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and Frontier Toyota, the safe driving program is designed to show young people what can happen when drivers don't use seat belts, or they speed or drink and drive.

White-knuckled young hands gripped their desk tops at Hart High School as slide after slide of maimed teens - both dead and alive - flicked across the screen.

A few girls briefly covered their eyes, some gasped, but no one spoke during the presentation by nurse Valerie Carmean, herself not much older than her mesmerized audience.

``I know how important it is not to drink and drive,'' she said. ``I am here today giving this presentation because I was lucky enough several years ago not to get in my friends' truck while they were drinking and driving.''

Carmean said she went instead with a sober group careful to buckle up - two factors that saved their lives.

The truckload of drinkers was killed a short time later in a head-on collision, leaving Carmean sadder, wiser and grateful to be alive.

``Since then, I've been giving these presentations to show people what can really happen,'' she said.

The lesson is a difficult one to teach because it hits close to home. The trauma center, Carmean said, sees five to 10 victims of traffic collisions each day.

The students have managed to make it through the grisly presentations since Munroe began incorporating them into his driver's ed curriculum.

``But I've had to treat some for shock, some have passed out, and many have been nauseated,'' Munroe said.

Hart Junior Mahlet Negussie said it was sad to see the people in the slide presentation injured so badly.

``You don't expect something like that to happen to you; people just don't expect it,'' she said.

Another junior, Martha Rivera, was shaken by a particularly grim slide. The lessons were worth the pain, though, she said.

And then Carmean showed the students the most chilling photos of all.

The picture of a young girl in a cheerleader's outfit who resembled the pop singer Jewel flashed on the screen, and Carmean began to tell her story slowly.

The pretty cheerleader, who had won a scholarship to Stanford University, on a whim had decided to take her father's new car out for a spin.

Carmean showed the next slide, a picture of twisted metal and broken glass.

The last slide showed a picture of the young cheerleader - her uniform and long blond hair gone. She wore a prison uniform, identification numbers were printed on her photo just below her chin.

Carmean explained that the girl had been drinking and tried to stop too late. She hit a parked truck and killed the occupants - a young mother and her 4-year-old child.

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PHOTO (Color) Valerie Carmean, an ER nurse at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, talks to students at Hart High School while showing slides from vehicle crashes to illustrate the dangers of unsafe driving.

David R. Crane/Daily News