Grim reality of impaired driving
Every 15 Minutes program drives home message at Highland High
PALMDALE — With Highland High School’s prom scheduled for next week, the school and the California Highway Patrol conducted a simulated drunk driving traffic collision Thursday morning, as part of the Every 15 Minutes program, to remind students about the dangers of driving under the influence and distracted driving and the impact it has on friends, families and their community.
The crash was staged in the campus parking lot at Avenue P-12 and 25th Street West. The vehicles were a badly mangled silver GMC Sierra truck and a wrecked silver Cadillac CTS. Student volunteers portrayed the driver and the victims. Students from the classes of 2023 and 2024 watched as emergency responders from the CHP, Los Angeles County sheriff’s, fire and coroner departments and American Medical Response responded as they would to a real life crash.
The mock crash had three fatalities, including two pedestrians. The victims were transported to Antelope Valley Medical Center.
This is the first Every 15 Minutes program at Highland High in four years, so it reached a new audience of students. It is also the first in the Antelope Valley since the pandemic. As part of the program, students are pulled out of class every 15 minutes by the grim reaper. They become the walking dead and represent the victims of such crashes. An obituary is written for them.
Students from Highland High’s Link Crew, Public Service Academy and film program participated in the event.
Link Crew member senior De’Jon Patrick portrayed the drunk driver.
“I want them to learn that this program is meant to teach people
that drinking and driving or anything close to that is not a good thing,” he said. “It’s not safe.”
Senior Destiny Campos played one of the victims.
“I feel like this is very important not just for us students, but family members, because it really takes a big effect on your mom, your father,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not even you that’s doing the wrong thing but other people that are doing the right thing. You always have to pay attention on the road, definitely, especially since a lot of us are 18 and we’re just getting our license. I feel like that really affects a lot of us.”
Link Crew member junior Jacob Hardy helped manage the event. He said programs such as Every 15 Minutes are very effective.
“They teach drivers the importance of not drinking and driving, not texting and driving, not having a DUI, any of those bad things,” he said. “It teaches them to drive more responsibly, not drive under the influence; it shows the effect of what this could do to you, what it could do to other people.”
Getting juniors and seniors out of the classroom for one period to witness the mock crash scene teaches them an important lesson, Principal Charles Dunn said.
“You can show videos about driving under the influence, the consequences of it; however, when you actually see students being pulled out of class, the coroner, everything that would actually happen and the consequences of that,” he said. “A reenactment is the best way to showcase that; you can’t do this in an actual classroom. With our prom coming up next week, it’s a great opportunity for us to showcase to our juniors and seniors how one bad mistake can change not just that person’s life but thousands of lives.”
Link Crew members Olivia Cano, Esme Dominguez Chavez and Karla Recinos did the makeup on the crash victims.
“My mom had to write an obituary,” Cano, who also played one of the walking dead, said. “She got emotional doing it.”
“It was a great experience, I believe,” Dominguez Chavez, who also portrayed one of the walking dead, said.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court also participates in the program. Patrick appeared in court before a judge Thursday afternoon to answer to his charges. The program will conclude with an assembly for the students today.