Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies Steve Grisenti (left) and Carl Neusel arrest Rick Johanson, the Prospect student who portrayed the drunk driver who caused a two-car crash.
Every 15 Minutes
By Rebecca Ray
Photographs by Jacqueline Ramseyer
'Major injury accident at Prospect High School--Prospect and Lyle," boomed a voice from police dispatch one day at the high school. Students gathered in the football field bleachers and watched a dazed and frightened driver fling open the door of a demolished car, walk over to a girl lying bloody and motionless on the ground and try to shake her awake. In another demolished car, the severely injured driver leaned lifelessly on the window.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A Prospect student covers her face, after watching as one of her classmates is loaded into a body bag after being declared "dead at the scene."
The scene was part of a simulation of what could happen if a person drives while drunk. Recently, school officials and 20 community partners held the "Every 15 Minutes" program at the school to educate juniors and seniors about the potential consequences of drunken driving.
The name was chosen because a person in the United States dies every 15 minutes from an alcohol-related collision, school guidance advisor Stacy Harvey said.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A Santa Clara County firefighter assists student Alex Harkins, who portrayed a student injured in a drunk-driving accident, as part of the 'Every 15 Minutes' program held at Prospect High School.
School officials chose four students to stage a drunken-driving accident to which personnel from various agencies, including American Medical Response and the Santa Clara County Fire and Sheriff's departments, responded. School officials also chose 19 other students to play the "living dead," who painted their faces to look like zombies and pulled a tarp from the crash scene, before the other four students acted out the aftermath of the crash.
On the first day, deputy Noah Brommeland, who was dressed as the Grim Reaper, pulled the "living dead" from their classes. Because the students "died," they couldn't speak and had to leave their backpacks where they were. Once Brommeland pulled a student from class, another deputy read the student's obituary to the rest of the class.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Santa Clara County firefighters use the Jaws of Life to remove the roof and windshield of a car during a mock drunk-driving crash held in the football stadium at Prospect High School.
Later, at the crash scene, the fire department brought the Jaws of Life, a cutting machine used to disassemble a vehicle, to extract the two injured victims; Deputies Steve Grisenti and Carl Neusel gave student Rick Johanson, who portrayed the drunken driver, sobriety tests and arrested him. Paramedics performed CPR and on-the-scene medical care to the injured victims, who were taken away to Valley Medical Center by an ambulance. The county coroner declared the fourth student "dead at the scene" and took the body to the morgue in a body bag.
The next day, a mock memorial service, which all juniors and seniors attended, was held in the main gym.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Prospect students look at headstones that represent the deaths of their classmates who portrayed the 'living dead'.
"It's been a learning experience, the different choices we have to make, not just about drinking and driving, but also about how they affect people around us," said Carl Simien, an 18-year-old senior from San Jose, who participated in the event. "We hope they'll realize how serious this is and how this could happen to them."
Moryt Milo contributed to this report.
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