Teen speaks of sister’s tragic night of drinking, hopes to save others

Published 11:22 pm Tuesday, December 4, 2007

EVERETT — Emily Zylstra, 15, stood on the stage at Everett High School early Tuesday morning, looking composed and every bit the part of a typical teen.

What the 1,600 high school students couldn’t see was the brace on her nerve-damaged right leg, the scar above her hairline or the plate in her mouth that provides three front teeth.

They was no clue that her right eye is legally blind.

Zylstra didn’t mention the injuries she suffered or the surgeries she endured after a traffic accident last December.

She did, however, describe the greatest pain from that tragic night of drinking: the death of her sister, Hannah.

“She made a mistake and she paid the ultimate price,” she said.

Hannah’s mistake is the same one that costs more than 13,000 Americans their lives each year, according to national statistics on drunken driving.

The friendly, straight-A student, a junior at Snohomish High School, drank alcohol, got behind the steering wheel, turned on the ignition and attempted to drive home with Emily in the passenger seat beside her.

Emily, who attends school in Snohomish, and her father, Fred Zylstra, wanted students at Everett High School to remember what happened to Hannah with winter holidays approaching and holiday parties being planned. They are speakers for the Snohomish County DUI Victim Panel.

Emily spoke candidly about the missteps that night, hoping the perspective of someone the students’ age and the gravity of her experience might reach them.

“It is not hard for me to talk,” she said. “It is hard to get the message across.”

Hannah and Emily had been at a party Dec. 23. Both drank alcohol and both worried about making it home by their 11 p.m. curfew.

Hannah was driving fast along Woods Creek Road near Monroe when her red Chevrolet Cavalier collided with a sport utility vehicle. She died at the accident scene while Emily was airlifted in critical condition to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

As the minutes passed 11 p.m., Fred and Christine Zylstra began to worry about their daughters.

It was Christmas Eve morning before the deputy and the chaplain drove onto the family farm.

The heartache his family has endured over the past 11 months has been indescribable, he said to the high school students.

“All I can say is please believe me, you don’t want to go through this,” he said.

Jan Schemenauer, the county’s DUI victim panel coordinator, lost her first husband 29 years ago in a drunk-driving collision. He was 23 and the newlyweds hadn’t even gotten their wedding pictures back before he was hit by a drunk driver.

She asked the Everett High student body who owned a cell phone. More than a thousand students raised their hands.

She urged each one to add a trusted and sober contact at the top of their speed dial list.

“If that means you have to bump your boyfriend or your girlfriend out of the No. 1 spot, then so be it,” she said.

Everett High School Principal Catherine Matthews said the early morning assembly carried a message that strikes close to home. Her best friend and her friend’s brother were killed while in college by a drunk driver, she said.

“It is important that our students are safe and make good safe choices, whether they are on campus or away from campus,” she said.

Afterward, one by one, several students approached Fred Zylstra to thank him and, in some cases, share a personal experience.

“You hope they feel some of your pain,” he said. “If they can’t, it isn’t likely to stick with them very long.”

The stragglers clearly did.

“They are thinking about it,” he said with a smile. “I’m very encouraged by that. They are weighing the risk factors.”