Tuolumne, CA — The California Highway Patrol is educating students at Summerville high school about the consequences of drinking and driving with a little bit of shock therapy today.
Officer Tom Wills says the department introduced the “Every Fifteen Minutes” program to the students today, even though most of the student body most likely didn´t know it.
Students were unknowingly shown a staged fatal drunk driving accident which included a student being arrested for the crime of drunk driving. Wills says several students were involved in bringing the program to Summerville High, and many made it their senior projects.
The program is named “Every Fifteen Minutes” because statistics show that a high-school aged student is killed in an alcohol related accident every fifteen minutes nationwide. Wills says officers and the students involved have gone to great lengths to make the re-enactment as close to reality as possible.
He says the staged accident included students killed in the crash, as well as a student who died at the hospital. Another student was arrested and booked into jail. The whole event will be filmed and shown at an assembly of the student body tomorrow.
Wills says the program reminds students as they get ready for their senior proms of the severity and potential tragedy that goes with drinking and driving.
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 2:24 pm