Friday, March 19, 1999
Students get raw lesson on drinking, drugs, driving
Brain-damaged, paralyzed accident victim offers insights
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — A half-mile from Beechwood High School, Joey Berberich lost one life and crashed into another. In the instant of a car wreck, Joey went from an active teen with a wicked sense of humor to a person immobilized, with brain dam age, without a voice or full control over his own body.
Three years after the accident, Joey was inside Beechwood's gym, sitting on a chair with a laptop computer on his knees, sharing his new life with students.
“I have no clue what really happened. I only know what people tell me,” Joey said Thursday through the voice of a computer. “I just want you guys to be careful and to think about what you do because you don't know what will happen to you.
“Please take time and think about what I say. I know some of you think you have your lives under control. So did I.”
On Feb. 24, 1996, Joey and two friends got into his car. Other friends were in two other cars. There were eight cases of beer among them.
Joey and his friends decided to race on Dixie Highway as they headed to a party. They had already smoked marijuana and drunk some beer. Near Indigo's restaurant, Joey rear-ended one car and was then sideswiped by another. One friend died; the other broke an arm.
Joey left life as the oldest of five siblings and a senior at Dixie Heights High and entered a world of consequences and rehabilitation.
Joey and his mother, Ginny Berberich, were at Beechwood as part of Teen Awareness Day, sponsored by the school's PTA, Fort Mitchell Police Officer Roy Taylor and Covington Police Officer George Russell.
“Think about Joey's sto ry,” Officer Taylor said. “Think about what you learn in DARE and Just Say No. Think about your parents. Think about when your friends say, "It's just one beer.'”
Before the accident, Joey attended St. Henry High. He said he hated school and was often at odds with his parents. They fought often. He started “smoking weed, dropping acid and drinking alcohol.”
Eventually he transferred to Dixie Heights. He made lots of friends and bought his first car. He'd only made the first payment on his Volkswagen when the crash happened.
Joey's mom finished the story.
She said the experience weakened the family. There are fights and yelling. Their savings are gone. And every year when Joey's youngest sister, Amy, has her birthday, memories of the accident return — the wreck happened the day Amy turned 3.
Joey used to be very self-conscious, always dressing in the latest styles, wearing the baggy pants and the long shirts.
“Now he isn't very cool,” Mrs. Berberich said. “He's grown up and he doesn't care what people think.”
But there are everyday things people do, like brushing teeth or tying shoes, that Joey can't accomplish.
“If you choose to make stupid decisions, then you live with that. Joey will live with his decision, and we live with the decisions he made,” Mrs. Berberich said. “If it saves any of you, if it saves you from being stupid, that's why we are here.”
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