"Every 15 Minutes" program warns high school students not to drink and drive

As end-of-the-year prom and graduation seasons approach, MDUSD schools and local emergency responders want to be sure high school juniors and seniors celebrate in safe and responsible ways. In an effort to prevent deaths or injuries related to drinking and driving, Concord Police, Contra Costa fire and sheriff's departments and other local agencies, businesses and organizations collaborated with Concord High School on April 14-15 to present the dramatic "Every 15 Minutes" program, which simulated a fatal DUI traffic collision involving a student drunk driver near the football field. The program included more than a dozen "living dead" students who were absent from their classrooms, replaced by flowers and obituaries. These students were separated from their families and classmates for one day and night to demonstrate the impact of lives cut short by drunk driving. The program's name reflects the statistic that every 15 minutes, someone in the United States dies in an alcohol-related traffic collision.

On the first day of the two-day event, firefighters and paramedics extricated injured students from crashed cars using the jaws-of-life, treated them, and transported them to a hospital via a REACH helicopter. The coroner arrived to remove a student pronounced "dead" at the scene, whose anguished mother looked on. And a Police Officer administered a sobriety test and arrested student Roxanna Lara, who played the role of the "drunk driver.”

On the second day, the program culminated with a mock memorial service for the "dead" students, which started with a video showing the students partying before drinking and driving, a recap of the simulation on the football field, the "drunk driver" being booked into jail by police, and hospital footage of one student dying, another being treated for injuries, and their parents grappling with their grief as medical professionals explain what happened to their children. The video produced for the program contains images and situations that may be disturbing to viewers. Parental discretion is advised to view the video. 

The second day also featured guest speakers including a Concord Police representative who explained the importance of not drinking and driving and who asked those who have been impacted by a drunk driver or who knew someone who had to stand. It also included obituaries and tombstones in the campus courtyard remembering those who "died." 

CHS Sophomore Arjen Swift, who performed "Amazing Grace" on baritone saxophone for the Memorial Service, did not attend the mock traffic collision because it was for juniors and seniors. But he did feel the loss of his "living dead" classmates, when police officers walked into his classrooms and announced that they had died. "I was very relieved to find out that they had not died," he said, adding that he would like to participate in the program when he is a senior, if possible, because it was very effective in making students aware of the impacts of drunk driving.

The emotional and gut-wrenching simulations and real-life horror stories challenged students to think about driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and the importance of good decision making by allowing them to experience first-hand the sensations of being involved in a tragic, alcohol-related driving fatal collision, or being impacted by the loss of their friends and classmates.

Thank you to the California Highway Patrol, which helps fund and provide education for the program, as well as all the local emergency responders, hospital personnel, volunteers, parents, students and staff, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), who made this program possible. View a short reel highlighting the event.

College Park HS held a similar Every 15 Minutes program last month in partnership with the Pleasant Hill Police Department and other agencies.