
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993                   TAG: 9310200183
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BURBANK, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

DISNEY WILL RE-EDIT FILM LINKED TO TEEN DEATH

The Walt Disney Co. said it would delete a key scene from "The Program" after three teen-agers were struck by automobiles while apparently imitating the scene by lying in roadways.

The brief sequence near the film's start shows several drunken college football players lying end-to-end amid rushing cars. It will be removed by Friday, and the film's trailer, which shows the scene, also will be pulled, Disney said Tuesday.

A pickup truck ran over 18-year-old Michael Shingledecker on Saturday in Polk, Pa., as he lay on a highway dividing line. Another teen was critically injured.

Michael Macias, 17, who played high school football in Syosset, N.Y., was hit early Saturday while prone in the middle of a Long Island street. He was in critical condition Tuesday with spinal injuries.

"While the scene in the movie in no way advocates this irresponsible activity, it is impossible for us to ignore that someone may have recklessly chosen to imitate it," the film's writer-director, David Ward, said in a statement. - Associated Press

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB