Dramatic proof that drunk driving kills — every 15 minutes 1515minutes

Staged event is meant to raise awareness of the dangers
of drunk driving among teens
by BERT WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
As the door to the classroom opened, Mr. Lezotte’s 9:30
pre-calculus class was well under way. The visitor was the Grim
Reaper.
“Whitney … Losh …,” intoned the Reaper, leaning heavily on his
scythe.
Whitney gathered her things, stood and silently followed the
black-hooded figure out the door. Highway Patrol officer Shannon
King stepped forward and informed the remaining students that their
classmate had perished in a tragic alcohol-related traffic
accident. “It happens every fifteen minutes in this country,” King
told the students.
The brief skit — played out in 19 Healdsburg High School
classrooms on April 30 — was part of “Every 15 Minutes,” a two-day
event calculated to heighten awareness, among HHS students, of the
dangers of drunk driving.
At 10:30 a.m. a general announcement was heard across the HHS
campus. Students were to congregate behind the playing field on
Monte Vista Avenue. Arriving at the site, they found bleachers set
up at a staged accident scene.
A Cadillac Sedan de Ville and a Mercury Sable had apparently
crashed. Glass and chrome were strewn across the roadway. The body
of a teen-age girl with a massive head wound was splayed out
through the windshield across the Cadillac’s hood. The driver and
another passenger were visible, stirring inside the car.
As a 911 call reporting the accident crackled over the public
address system, the Mercury driver got out and moved unsteadily
toward the Cadillac.
“Are you OK?” he asked the dead girl on the hood.
Sirens in the distance signalled the approach of emergency
vehicles. A motorcycle cop cruised into the scene, then fire
trucks, more police, an ambulance. The drunken teen-ager — the
driver of the Mercury — appeared frightened and confused.
During the next 45 minutes, the HHS student body watched
emergency personnel working to extricate the injured teen-agers
from the Cadillac. Portable generators sputtered to life. Cables
and fire hoses crisscrossed the scene. Paramedics checked vital
signs of the trapped teenagers while other emergency workers cut
through door posts, eventually peeling back the Cadillac’s roof as
if it were the lid of a sardine can.
Healdsburg Police Officer Rob Thiessen administered a sobriety
test to the drunk driver. The teen was arrested and taken to the
Sonoma County Jail by California Highway Patrol Officer Michael
Phennicie.
The body of the girl on the hood was transferred to the
coroner’s van.
As the sun bore down on spectators, the two surviving victims
finally were pulled from the wreckage and carried to the ambulance.
Then, with ambulance siren fading away, students were instructed to
return to class.
Next morning, HHS students gathered again — this time filling
the bleachers in Smith Robinson Gymnasium. On the oak floor,
parents and law enforcement officials assumed appointed positions
as a bagpipe dirge began outside.
Preceded by the bagpipes, pall bearers carried a silver casket
draped with red carnations. The 19 students snatched away by the
Grim Reaper followed in procession.
Student organizers Angie Arriaza and Maddie Hannon, moderated
the program that followed. Parents read letters to their “dead”
children. Then, two sisters — Britney and Miranda Hackley —
described their own pain from the loss of their brother, Brady, who
died in a real alcohol-related crash.
“Another five minutes and he would have been home safe in bed,”
said Miranda. “Kick your friend’s butt when you see them drunk and
ready to drive away … You never get over something like this. You
just learn to live with it.”
Sonoma County Deputy Coroner, Detective Jim Cheney, graphically
described the Coroner’s work after a fatal crash. “We lose a young
person about once a month in Sonoma County,” Cheney told the
assembled students.
Then came the hard-hitting video created by student
videographers Nick Colombini and Craig Clement.
Portraying imagined events preceding the Monte Vista Avenue
crash, Colombini and Clement caught HHS students hanging out around
town, cruising, talking on their cell phones, deciding whether or
not to go to a party.
Nick Sindle decided to go.
At the party, alcohol flowed freely with predictable results.
Sindle drank much more than he should have.
Next morning, with sunlight streaming through the windows,
Sindle awoke. He was hung over, still drunk, and late for
class.
It was on his way to school that Sindle’s Mercury struck the
Cadillac carrying Rachel Brandt, Jamie Mironicki and Dane Jackson.
As emergency crews raced to remove accident victims, the
videographers zoomed in on the scene.
Colombini and Clement split up after the victims were pulled
from the wreckage. One followed Sindle to the County Jail,
chronicling his booking and arraignment. The other rode the
ambulance to the hospital emergency room, recording the ER staff’s
attempt to save Jackson and Mironicki.
Windsor High School Principal Jeff Harding attended the HHS
event. “It was one of the most emotionally moving experiences I’ve
ever seen in a high school,” said Harding. “… It seemed to bring
the community together — police, fire department, teachers,
parents, kids — in a way that was unique. It was a very cohesive
community event. … I though it was remarkable on so many
levels.”
Harding attended with the thought that “Every 15 Minutes” might
be staged in the future on the WHS campus.
“I don’t have any specific evidence that this keeps kids from
drinking and driving,” said Harding, “but I can only imagine it
must have a positive impact.”
Three days after the drama had unfolded, HHS co-principal Karen
Ricketts reflected on the event. Many students had told her, she
said, that “Every 15 Minutes” made a significant impact on their
lives.