Trying to scare kids sober with his powerful, true story

Once their rented Lincoln Town Car hit 100 mph, Mark Sterner let his foot off the gas. "Don't want to get arrested for DWI," the 21-year-old driver tells his four fraternity brothers.

The senior spring breakers filmed most of their last night on Florida's Sanibel Island. They start with shots of Jagermeister at the condo and joy ride down dark beach roads. They bar hop and hit the dance floor.

The footage ends just minutes before a drunken Sterner drove into a tree, killing three of his friends. A fifth lived.

Nearly 15 years later, he's shown the video to more than 2 million students across the country. On Wednesday, Sterner shared his story with about 100 students at Harper College.

"I was supposed to be the first person in my family to graduate from college," said Sterner. "Instead I was the first person to go to prison."

The Pennsylvania native, who was on life support, still lay in the hospital bed when officers took his mug shot. A judge sentenced him to three years in a maximum-security prison for three counts of DUI manslaughter. He faced up to 45 years, but said the victims' families didn't want such a severe punishment.

"Every day I feared for my life," said Sterner, who wore his orange prison jumpsuit to his Harper talk. "All these guys had was their reputation and they didn't like that I was a college student."

They had acted responsibly for almost the entire trip. Each of the five guys took a turn as designated driver. But on the sixth and final night, no one wanted to step up. They decided the "least drunk" among them would drive.

Tests showed that Sterner, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, was indeed the least intoxicated.

"Nobody wanted to miss out on the fun," he said. "You heard us on the video - we were going to get out of hand."

Sterner, who says he's still in contact with his friends' families, asked students to imagine their loved ones getting called to the hospital at 3 a.m. as his parents did.

"I'd trade my life in a heartbeat to bring back my friends for just 10 minutes so they could say goodbye," he said.

Sterner says he's not trying to preach. Out of respect for the families, he doesn't reveal last names, their college or even the year the crash took place. He just shows the video and shares his story from that fateful night.

"I do this so you never have to bury one of your friends," he said. "I'll never know if anyone listens."

Sterner wasn't in the room to see it, but at least a few people made note of a local cab company's phone number provided afterward.

"I looked around and it seemed like he was getting through to some people," said Harper student John Turk, 26, of Palatine. "It just takes one person."