Learning About Life and Death:

Learning About Life and Death: Dramatic Program Educates Teens about Drunk Driving

The scene is devastating. A wrecked car, bloodied bodies, empty beer cans, the sounds of sirens and the cries for help. It’s a scene played out in cities across America, as teenagers mix alcohol with driving as they celebrate spring break, prom and graduation.

While students are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving, the reality of the devastation to the individual, families and society is not clear until they experience it firsthand, far too late.

Castro Valley High School (CVHS) students will see and experience just what really happens when drinking and driving collide at a program called “Every 15 Minutes” on April 6 & 7, 2006. The high school will join forces with Eden Medical Center, California Highway Patrol (CHP), Alameda County Fire Department and other Alameda County emergency responders to bring the program to junior and senior level students.

The program goes beyond a “mock” accident scene, reaching students in the classrooms, at home and at play to illustrate at a very personal level how the wrong choices can have life-altering consequences.

The “Every 15 Minutes” program was started in the early 1990s when it was estimated that a person in the United States was killed every 15 minutes in an alcohol-related collision. With programs like this one as well as MADD and SADD, that number is now closer to every 41 minutes.

DAY 1 – APRIL 6

CHP officers arrive on the CVHS campus to pull pre-selected students from their various classrooms. As the student departs, the officer reads the student’s obituary to the class, while another officer visits the student’s home and reads the same obituary to the parents. This continues every 15 minutes until approximately 20 students have been pulled from class. These students are then made over to represent the “living dead” and go about their school day, with no communication with their friends or participation in sports or other activities.

At 10:30 a.m., the junior and senior classes will assemble at the football field to witness a staged crash scene and hear every detail of the emergency response. The scenario indicates that student drivers are coming from a party and leave to get more alcohol, when one driver loses control and crashes into the other car, causing major injuries. One student driver will “die” at the scene and be removed by the Alameda County Coroner. Two other students will suffer major injuries and be transported – by ambulance and by helicopter – to the Trauma Center at Eden Medical Center, where the trauma team will assemble and conduct a full, realistic assessment and contact the family. The student driver will be evaluated by a CHP officer for driving under the influence of alcohol and causing the collision. He will subsequently be arrested and booked into the jail.

The first day’s events are videotaped and compiled to show the student body on day two.

The participating students then attend an overnight retreat to discuss the day’s events and participate in a series of activities related to the program.

DAY 2 – APRIL 7

CVHS will conduct a series of student assemblies, inviting all participants and the families of the students who were involved in the program, to view the video that shows the crash scene, emergency response, hospital treatment, notification of parents regarding their child’s “death,” and the arrest and booking of the driver. Several students and parents will read letters written to their families or their child as to how they feel about what has happened to them in the last 24 hours. The assembly is attended by the staff, CHP personnel, Fire Dept. personnel, EMS staff from AMR, and other community members who brought this program together.

BACKGROUND

Parents, teachers, students, staff volunteers, law enforcement, fire personnel, hospital staff, county personnel, and community volunteers have planned this program for nine months. The program is offered in the spring, to keep the memories fresh before spring break, prom and graduation season.

PHOTO AND INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

Media are invited to attend the program on April 6 at the high school, trauma center and coroner’s bureau. Interviews will be arranged with students, teachers, event organizers and first responders. The crash scene uses an automobile from a recent accident involving a drunk driver. The participating students will be moulaged (complete make-up) and placed in and around the crashed vehicle, awaiting emergency response. Police, fire and ambulance will respond. A helicopter will land at the high school to transport one student to Eden Medical Center, and an ambulance will transport the other student. The coroner will arrive in the van to retrieve the deceased student, and police will arrest the drunk driver.

Cameras will also be allowed at the hospital’s trauma center for treatment as well as initial contact with the parents of the “injured” students.

CONTACT

Media are invited to arrive by 10:30 a.m. at Castro Valley High School.

For more information, contact Eden Medical Center Public Relations at (510) 727-2720.