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CHAPEL HILL – Emergency officials are trying to find out whether expensive simulated car crashes are effective in deterring students from dangerous driving.

Chris McGrath, an RN and EMT for UNC Carolina Air Care, led one of those mock wrecks at East Chapel Hill High School Monday. The drill's goal is to show the consequences of making destructive decisions, sending a powerful message to students.

McGrath believes this method is effective in getting through to young people, but there's no data to back it up – and the drills are costly. That's why he's performing a study where students will be surveyed three different times.

"Baseline before and the day of to see if there's an immediate change and then 180 days later to see if there is any residual effects," McGrath, with UNC Carolina Air Care, said.

If these mock accidents prove to be effective, emergency officials and schools will continue to perform them.

"These are expensive to put on, but the costs of these are nothing compared to an ICU visit if one of these teenagers wrecks this car," McGrath said.

Statistics show North Carolina ranks fifth in the nation when it comes to teenage driving fatalities.

"This is a very dubious distinction and we are out to change that," McGrath said.

It's exactly what he hopes this simulated crash will do.

"People are laughing, but I think people will come away from it thinking, 'OK this is actually what happens?'" Becky Jepson, a junior, said.

"It makes me feel like I should be more safe on the road and I shouldn't be doing anything reckless to endanger my life of anybody else's life," Tracey McCauley, a junior, said.

It's something McGrath knows all too well.

"You don't want people to have to go home and tell their family members that their child has died in a wreck," he said.