Car crash survivor Alba Alonso walked up the steps of the main theater with a prosthetic leg and took the stage in front of the auditorium full of seniors. Six years earlier, she had almost died in a car accident when an intoxicated driver pinned her between two cars on the side of the road after she got out to get something from the trunk. 

Her right leg was stuck, and after her wife finally freed her, “I didn’t have a leg … you could see my femur bone,” Alonso said. “My wife kept screaming [at the driver], ‘You killed her! You killed her!’ and I couldn’t understand why she thought I was dead.”

The driver was found to be intoxicated with several times above the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Heritage held a senior assembly Thursday morning—three days before prom—to educate 12th graders about the impacts of intoxicated and distracted driving. It included a car extraction demonstration from the Plantation Fire Department as well as two guest speakers from local awareness organizations.

“I’ve been advocating since I was in the ICU bed,” Alonso said. “The gentleman that hit me was 37, but that wasn’t the first time he drank … so these habits start now, which is why it’s important to really talk to the kids.”

Alonso works as a speaker with Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), a national organization dedicated to traffic safety and substance abuse prevention. Each year, she visits Heritage—along with several other high schools—to encourage students to be responsible drivers. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to have some students come up to me and personally tell me how, ‘I’m gonna think of you when I make these decisions,’ or ‘You opened my perspective to something very differently,’” she said. “I was able to speak at a school last week and … these kids even followed through enough to go to church on Sunday. 
And it was because of what I said.”

After witnessing her accident, Alonso said her wife still went on to continue drunk driving regularly.

“What really resonated [with me] was the fact that you’re able to witness an event like that, and you’re still able to fall for the same trap,” senior Kieran Gill said. “The realization that it can affect anyone, even someone who’s seen the magnitude of the accident, is something that really goes deep.”

Alonso’s son, Ayden Hernandez, who was with her at the event, said he’s also felt his mother’s presentations impact him.

“I’ve seen her struggle. So this is a very big thing for us, it’s making me feel [like I shouldn’t] give up … She didn’t give up on her life, so now it’s making me not give up on mine.”

As well as Alonso, Ms. Melanie Winters—an elementary teacher at Heritage—also spoke. Last year, Ms. Winters lost her son, 2024 graduate Aidan Winters, in a reckless driving accident. She started Aidan’s Forever Impact, a non-profit advocating for stricter safety laws and greater awareness related to reckless driving.

Following the speakers, seniors walked outside the 3000 building to watch a car extraction demonstration done by Plantation firefighters. The department brought a car that was crushed in a serious crash onto campus and showed students how firefighters would work to cut passengers out of the vehicle after a crash.

“When you’re in an accident, you’re either unconscious or … you’re in and out, and it shows here what it takes to get you out,” said fire department Public Information Officer Kaitlin Murphis. “We really want the kids to see real life, that that text can wait … because if you make the wrong call and your life is gone, you have your family [and] your friends mourning you and you’re going to miss birthdays, weddings, big milestones. I just want to … show them that it can wait.”

During the demonstration, firefighters removed pieces of the car—first the windshield, then doors, then the roof—while Murphis walked students through each step.

Gill, who himself lost someone to a drunk driving accident and has witnessed real accidents through his role as a fire cadet, said the presentation opened his eyes to the importance of staying safe behind the wheel.

“I drive my sisters home and I am responsible for my life and theirs … [the demonstration] makes me realize just how quickly [accidents] can happen and how vulnerable we really are on the road,” he said. “We feel confident behind the wheel. We feel like we’re in control, but … that’s an illusion. That goes away quickly once you realize just how quickly everything can change.”

The speakers and presenters also knew that not every senior at the event was going to take them seriously.

“But honestly, I feel like if a couple of kids get it, I’m like, ‘that’s okay,’” Alonso said. “That’s the goal.”