Eddie Coombs' Sister Stresses Good Decision-Making

Students at didn't need to see a smashed-up car, or drive golf carts around while wearing "impairment" goggles to witness the devastation that can accompany drinking and driving.

Instead, devastation stood before them Friday in the form of , the older sister of 2010 Hatboro-Horsham graduate , who died in a , along with fellow Hatter . Coombs and Nagel were two of four passengers in a car driven by .

"Yes, life is short," Coombs told the audience hours before the 2012 prom would begin. "It doesn't mean you need to be living recklessly." 

All in McNicholas' car were presumed to have been drinking and the driver's blood alcohol level was .117 at the time of the crash, according to authorities. McNicholas was said to have been driving roughly 100 miles-per-hour on the 25-mile-per-hour section of Witmer Road in Horsham when he lost control of his car, killing two of his best friends. 

Coombs said texting and driving is just as serious as driving while impaired. The dangerous combination is equal to driving at the state's legal blood alcohol level of .08, she said. 

"When you're texting and driving you're not paying attention at all," Coombs said. "These are all things that change your life forever."

Senior  said that while the assembly "brings the mood down" - and opens still healing wounds - it offered a necessary message. 

"I think people will actually see the different sides of it," said DiPietro, who had dated Eddie Coombs for two years before his death at 19 years old. "That really does hurt everybody."

DiPietro said that since Coombs and Nagel's deaths - which the community mourned via a , well-attended funerals and a  - her friends are "all so much different." 

In addition to hearing from Erin Coombs, students watched an interview with Benjamin Walter, a Reading man who, in 2005, while driving drunk, took the life of a pedestrian, Justin Sheftel, during senior week in Ocean City, Md. 

"You can be anybody," said Walter, who since serving time for the vehicular homicide, has begun public speaking. "If you make that one wrong decision, you could be in my shoes, or you could be in Justin's shoes."

Through bouts of tears and heartfelt memories, Justin's mother, Linda Sheftel, shared what it's like without living the last seven years without her son.

"We still miss him. We think about him every day," Sheftel said. "I wanted to see him grow up to be a man."

Meant as a wakeup call for teens planning to drink before or after tonight's prom, the assembly made an impact on senior Samantha Sims.

"It struck me," Sims said. "I just keeping thinking about the last time I saw Rob (Nagel) and Eddie (Coombs)."

High school principal Dennis Williams said 500 students are attending prom. Of those, more than half are attending the second annual post-prom party.