U.S. student, 12, sees dead father's body in car crash photo display by police

A 12-year-old student saw her father's remains in a gruesome photograph of a drunken-driving crash during a police presentation on the dangers of mixing alcohol and operating a motor vehicle.

The girl's mother, Marla Cabbage Higginbotham, said her daughter was traumatized by the experience last month at the Holston Middle School. Her attorney has urged the Knox County Law Director's office to investigate.

"Why are we showing 12-year-olds mutilated dead bodies when they can't even drive a car for four more years?" attorney Gregory P. Isaacs said Friday. "(The police) are good people with good intentions who have made a terrible, terrible mistake."

The presentation, shown at the request of school officials, has been received well in the past, Knoxville Police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said. It uses photos from drunken-driving crashes in Knox County.

Police announce the names of the victims before they show the pictures. Higginbotham, however, said the family did not know the accident involved alcohol, and the girl did not immediately recognize her father's formal first name.

He was shown lying in a pool of blood with a crushed skull and mutilated face and torso, Higginbotham said.

Knox County deputy law director Marty McCampbell and Knox County Schools spokesman Russ Oaks said their departments are looking into the case, AP reported.