Six years ago, drunk after an evening of partying on his spring break in Florida, Mark Sterner crashed his car, killing three of his fraternity brothers and earning three DUI manslaughter convictions.

Sitting in a Florida high-security prison, fearing for his own life every day, Sterner realized that to prevent other students from getting in the same trouble he was in, he had to tell people his story. Yesterday evening, to a crowd that filled the Union Ballroom, Sterner continued his mission to tell as many people as possible what can happen when people drive drunk.

“I didn’t come here tonight to preach to you,” Sterner said. “I didn’t come here to tell you what to do. I just came here to tell you what happened to me.”

Sterner played the videotapes of his spring break six years ago. The images were of Sterner and his friends, drinking shots – lots of shots – before driving into the town of Sanibel, Florida to dance and drink some more.

When they were ready to go home, the five college students decided who among them was the least drunk – Sterner – and handed him the keys to their rented Lincoln Town Car.

At 3 a.m. that night, in a home in Pennsylvania, a phone rang. Sterner’s mother answered. The nurse on the other end of the line told her to get to Florida as fast as she could – her son, Matt, was in critical condition after a car accident.

Driving 55 to 60 m.p.h. on a 35 m.p.h. road, Sterner had swerved and crashed into a tree. His friends Jim and Pete were killed instantly, and Aaron was crushed beneath the car. One friend, Darren, survived.

Sterner didn’t regain consciousness until a week after the crash.

“I tried to talk, I tried to move and when I couldn’t, I got scared,” he said. Sterner remembers seeing his family in the corner of the room, before he lost conscious for another week.

When he awoke, his brother was beside him.

“He told me, ‘I was afraid that if I left you’d die, and I didn’t want you to die alone,'” Sterner recalled.

A while after Sterner woke up, two Sanibel police officers went into his hospital room to take his mug shot. He didn’t know yet that he was facing three counts of manslaughter – and up to 45 years in prison.

When he was convicted, Sterner was only sentenced to three years in prison. During his final year of incarceration, he began to tell his story at local Florida schools, to prevent students from drinking and driving.

Campus groups, as well as city officials and the Bowling Green High School supported Sterner’s visit to spread his message.

According to Douglas Cubberley, local bailiff and probation officer, 42 students who have DUI convictions were required to attend Sterner’s presentation as part of their sentencing. He said normally students are required to take either the Viewpoints or Perspectives classes at the University, but Sterner’s presentation was offered as an alternative.

“If this touches one or two of our 42 students, then it was a worthwhile alternative,” Cubberley said.

Nora Solomon, vice president of programming for the Panhellenic Council had the idea to bring Sterner to campus and brought this to the attention of other campus groups and city officials.

“BG has a lot of problems with DUIs and the number of DUIs going up,” she said. “Because it affects the community so much, we’ve had both on campus organizations and city leaders offer to help us.”

She added that Sterner’s presentation was good for students, because he doesn’t tell people what to do.

“Mark doesn’t lecture,” she said. “He just tells his story.”