The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Lasting Impact: 'My left leg is a few inches shorter than the right. I walk like I'm drunk,' said Jackie Masso ruefully, speaking about her family's car being struck by a drunken driver in 1982.

For these speakers, the issue of drunken driving gets personal

Harsh descriptions of injuries mingle with warnings and humor

By Rebecca Wallace

A disturbingly real simulation of a drunken-driving crash had been scheduled to take place May 29 on the Willow Glen High School football field, but rain forced organizers to move the event inside a small theater.

However, the words of those scarred by drunken driving proved to be drama enough.

Santa Clara County Fire Capt. Joe Viramontez, who organized the event as part of his "Operation Outreach" program, spoke to about 150 students on his experiences rescuing and treating victims of such collisions. And Jackie Masso, president and founder of the Bay Area chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, recounted the harrowing details of the 1982 crash that injured her and her daughter and husband.

"It was really real, and the stories were drastic," said Farah Khan, 17, of Willow Glen, after the final segment of the program, a Rescue 911 video about former Los Gatos High School student Brandon Silveria.

Silveria was seriously injured in 1987 when he was driving under the influence and crashed into a tree. He remained in a coma for several months and had to learn how to walk and talk all over again.

"Brandon came to speak at our school a few years ago," Khan said. "It's really painful to watch him."

Leaning on a brightly decorated cane, Masso spoke in a grandmotherly tone about the trauma that had befallen her family. As the family drove in a brand-new Buick Regal through Cupertino on a Wednesday afternoon, a young man who had started out the day with beer for breakfast weaved into the other lane and struck the Buick head on, Masso said. He was later determined to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.28.

He was driving about 70 miles an hour, while Masso's daughter was doing about 33, Masso said: "With the laws of physics, you're looking at a 100-mile-per-hour impact."

No one was killed, but the injuries were substantial to everyone but the intoxicated driver. Many students squirmed and "ohhhd" as Masso methodically listed off the wounds, including the phrases "crushed nose," "slammed into the dashboard," "she broke her wrist, knee, ankle, pelvis."

To keep from crying, Masso said she'd recount the only aspect of the crash with any humor: When her husband, Pat, was pulled out of the car, he was already frail from recent heart surgery, and the paramedics thought he was dead. But with collapsed lungs he couldn't speak to correct them. As a young medic was pulling a sheet over his head, Pat managed to say, "Don't."

"The paramedic passed out," Masso said with a faint smile. "We found out that she quit later that night."

Masso says she does not remember the crash and still has memory problems. "I was 51 years old and had to be retrained. I tried to eat and didn't know where my mouth was. I was in the hospital for 71/2 months."

Masso said drunken-driving accidents are not accidents; to drink and drive is a choice, and a resulting crash is "a violent crime."

Viramontez, the first firefighter to reach Silveria after his collision, said the experience had inspired him to begin the "Operation Outreach" program in West Valley high schools. He smiled as he said, "Brandon is in New York right now, getting ready to get married. He's doing great."

Darren Heinrichsen, 17, the school's president of Students Against Drunk Driving, had seen Silveria speak three years ago and had contacted Viramontez about coming to Willow Glen.

He said there were definitely groups at the school who did a lot of drinking on the weekends, but added a positive note: "Designated drivers are really common."

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