MURRIETA -- The silence was eerie.

Jason Barber had just described in gripping detail to the students packed into Vista Murrieta High's theater Tuesday how he killed his beloved younger brother.

Aaron Barber was just 15 -- the same age as many of the students in the theater -- when he died Sept. 13, 1991.

Some of the teens quietly wiped away tears as they listened to Jason Barber -- to his account of a tragedy that started with drinking some beers with some friends while out racing off-road motorcycles.

"I didn't think I was drunk. I thought I was OK to drive," Barber told them.

As Barber -- with Aaron next to him in the passenger seat -- was driving back home, he and a friend decided to race each other on Highway 138 in San Bernardino County. His pickup reached speeds of about 100 mph when he came upon a slower truck and tried to pass it.

But, as he describes it, he went "four inches too far" and went off the roadway, causing him to lose control of his truck.

The pickup rolled six times, ejecting Aaron who died at the crash scene, Barber said.

Ultimately, Barber was sentenced to nine years in state prison after being found guilty of vehicular manslaughter in connection with his brother's death.

Next month will be nine years since Barber was released from prison, where he served a little more than four years of his sentence.

For the last five years, Barber has taken his story to young people across the country -- hoping it makes a difference.

"It started with my going back to my brother's high school to say I'm sorry," Barber said shortly before he addressed the teens Tuesday afternoon. "It's just snowballed from there."

While his goal when he decided to tell his story full-time has always been to help others make the right decisions, Barber admits "it's been hard reliving my brother's death several times a week."

At last tally, Barber said, he had spoken to an estimated half a million youngsters, primarily high school and college students, but sometimes as young as middle-schoolers. Before this year, he was visiting about 160 to 180 schools a year but has pared that down to about 60 now.

"I have a 6-year-old daughter and she means the world to me, so I've slowed down," the proud father said with a smile.

"I have a good life now," he quickly added. "Our family has healed to a great extent."

But it wasn't always like that for Barber.

He described for the teens Tuesday how, once his pickup came to rest after rolling six times, he noticed that Aaron was no longer inside.

Barber said he had to crawl through the window of the smashed truck and started looking for his brother.

He first saw a woman from another truck he had hit who was badly injured. Then, he could hear a little girl screaming for her mommy over and over again.

"It hit me right then. I did that to this family," Barber told the teens. Then, he saw Aaron laying on the ground nearby.

"I could tell without a doubt my brother was dead," he said. "I was thinking there was no possible way I could live with this."

He walked onto a nearby bridge and was going to jump to the dry creekbed below but decided it wasn't far enough to kill him. So he went a bit further down the bridge because he saw some rocks below that would do the job.

But the friend he had been racing pulled him away from the bridge. So Barber just went back to his brother's body, laid down on his back next to him, put his hand on Aaron's chest and cried.

After five days in the hospital, Barber went home but was still thinking about suicide. Family members took him back to the hospital where he ended up in a psychiatric ward and ultimately the best thing possible happened to him, he says.

Barber entered an alcohol treatment unit where, he told the teens, "I learned about making good choices."

That's the key for them as well, Barber tried to impress on the teens.

To that end, Barber concludes each talk offering those in attendance the chance to pick up a contract they can enter into with a parent, friend or other loved one.

The contract states that both sides promise to never drive intoxicated, never ride in a vehicle with someone who is and to always wear a seat belt.

Dozens of Vista Murrieta teens lined up Tuesday to get one of the contracts.

Jenae Varney and Aimee Britton, both 15-year-old sophomores, were among those who did.

Both said Barber's talk touched them and they want to make a difference. Barber's loss of a loved one hit home for both girls, they said.

"It reminded me of my best friend who died" in a tractor accident, Jenae said.

"And I lost a brother to cancer," Aimee added.

The girls said they are confident that Barber's presentation will change lives. "You could see people crying," Aimee said.

During Barber's talk, he told the students that, if they only take one thing from this, "Please, please remember drunk driving is not an accident. Drunk driving is a choice."

It is a selfish choice to endanger lives, he added, and he encouraged the teens to take a stand against those who think it is OK to drive intoxicated.

The loudest applause during the presentation came during a question-and-answer period when one student asked Barber if he still drinks alcohol.

"I have not had a drink since the day Aaron died," he answered.

Barber's Web site is www.itsnotanaccident.com.

- Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.