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Automobile collisions are the number one cause of death for young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four.  The District Attorney of Kings County, Charles J. Hynes, has introduced the CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES PROGRAM in response to the deadly problems of reckless and drunk driving among teenagers.  District Attorney Hynes is dedicated to addressing and combating these issues.  Most of these deaths are preventable.  Some of these deaths result in criminal prosecutions.

D.A. Hynes has taken affirmative steps to deal with this tragic phenomenon.  He has instituted a program, “Choices and Consequences” to combat this problem in the high schools.  This program is a joint initiative between the District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Transportation, and the New York City Police Department. We are intending to visit as many Brooklyn High Schools to present our program of “Choices and Consequences” as time permits.

The Choices and Consequences Program is a prevention program.  It is an interactive 90-minute presentation broken down into three segments, information, role playing a criminal collision fact pattern, and conversation between the audience and victims’ families and defendants.  During our program we provide a fact pattern from a real criminal case and the students participate in the various roles.  We integrate into the fact pattern the arrival of the police.  Actual police officers from the Brooklyn North Task Force demonstrate some of the screening tests used to establish intoxication.  A student is then selected to play the role of the driver and perform standard coordination tests while wearing “fatal vision” goggles. “Fatal vision” goggles simulate the effects of a person intoxicated one and a half times the legal limit.  We conclude our program with a dose of reality.  A family member of a victim tragically killed or a defendant who has inflicted this grievous harm to another person speaks to the audience and relates their experiences.  Traditionally, this portion of the presentation has a tremendous impact upon the students.

To prevent collision - related injuries, deaths and prosecutions.  We are painfully aware of how difficult it is to get people to listen to any kind of instruction involving safety.  We are committed to try.  If we reach only one or two people in a session, they are two lives saved or two more people who will not be prosecuted.

The Choices & Consequences Program is both an Educational and a Community Service program.  The students evaluations and feedback from the teachers confirms that the message is being heard.  For some eligible defendants, speaking is an attempt to use their crimes to make a difference in other people’s lives while forcing them to take responsibility for their choices.  The Vehicular Crimes Bureau of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office offers the program.  This program can save your life.

The Vehicular Crimes Bureau is unique in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and unique in the City of New York.  The Vehicular Crimes Bureau is the only comprehensive unit in the five New York City District Attorney’s offices to provide expertise, consistency and priority to these crimes.

Please contact Heather Jordan at 718-250-2313 or by email at jordanh@brooklynda.org, if you have any questions or would like to schedule a presentation. Thank you for your attention to this deadly situation facing our young people. We look forward to hearing from you in the near future.