Staged car crash a sobering reminder for Healdsburg High students

Shattered glass, broken beer bottles and what appeared to be
blood covered the street behind Healdsburg High School last week
for a staging of an alcohol related car crash meant to bring
awareness to students.
A collaboration of city and county officials, along with school
staff, parents and students, presented the ‘Every 15 Minutes’
program to the entire student body. The worldwide program travels
from school to school to discourage teen drinking and driving and
more recently, texting while driving.
“We hope in a few years we can call this the every 30 minutes
program and then a few years after that, the every 60 minutes
program,” said CHP Public Information Officer Jonathan Sloat
regarding the name of the program, which represents how often
someone is killed in an alcohol related crash.
The program is a two-day series of events beginning with a
simulated car crash where students witness what a real life
accident scene would be like.
Local response teams arrive on the scene to remove and transfer
injured parties to the hospital by ambulance and helicopter, arrest
the intoxicated driver and one student is even pronounced dead and
taken away by the coroner.
Before students were dismissed, Principal Chris Vanden Heuvel
addressed the student body. He told a story about his little boy
greeting him at the door when he gets home at night and how it is
the highlight of his day.
“Your parents still feel this way too and you’re still that
little kid to them,” Vanden Heuvel said. “What happened here today
is their worst nightmare, so please make good choices.”
Program coordinators said that the intent of the program is to
hit hard with their message to students. The message of the program
is not to stop students from going to parties but for them to
understand what can happen if they get in the car with someone who
has been drinking or if they have been drinking themselves.
“I think this was a great experience for students,” said HHS
senior Annelise Jensch. “It was especially great for juniors and
seniors because we actually drive and have been in those situations
and seen friends in those situations and it’s pretty intense.”
Following the crash scene, students involved in the crash go
through the process of being booked into custody for driving under
the influence, are admitted to Healdsburg Hospital for treatment
and almost 30 other students spend the night away from home writing
letters to their families as if they were students killed in an
alcohol related accident.
“I don’t know how I will survive without you,” one parent wrote
to her child and read to the student body during the second day of
the program at a mock funeral procession. “For the last 17 years I
have been your mom and I don’t know how to do anything else.”
The high school auditorium was packed full of students, parents,
city officials and district officials for day two of the program.
The only sounds in the room full of people were the voices of
presenters.
One resident stood up and told his story about his recent
release from prison after killing four of his friends in a drunk
driving crash at a Memorial Day weekend lake party.
Audience members listened in silence as video footage from the
crash was replayed and never seen footage showed a follow-up of
each accident victim either in the hospital, jail or morgue.
Parents and students spoke and read letters of things they would
say if they had to say goodbye to loved ones in a related
incident.
The presentation ended with a story from Principal Vanden Heuvel
and several speakers from law enforcement.
“This is your one chance to get as close as possible to having a
do-over,” said Healdsburg Chief of Police Kevin Burk of watching
the program and making better choices moving forward. “We all have
those moments in life where we look back at something we wish we
could take back but we know we can’t. Don’t make a crash be one of
those moments.”
Staff Writer Robin Hug can be reached at Ro***@hb*****.com.