Some area high school students learned about the dangers of drinking and driving in dramatic fashion on Friday afternoon.

Students from 9 Missouri high schools held a mock DWI crash during this year’s Team Spirit Youth Traffic Safety Leadership Training Conference.

99 people were killed and 433 others were seriously injured due to traffic crashes involving an impaired teen driver between 2009 and 2011.

Organizers hope their DWI re-enactment encourages students to police each other at parties and other social gatherings.

Belton High School student Leonard Lee said, “It needs to stop.  I feel like I just need to get down and cry about it.  I feel like I need to reach out and help the people that are going through stuff like this that happens to their families.”

Team Spirit is a statewide program that promotes safe driving habits for youth while preventing underage drinking, drinking and driving and driver inattention.

The 3-day conference ends Saturday at Columbia’s Stoney Creek Inn.