Simulated car wreck teaches Cabrillo High School students about the the dangers of drunk driving

VANDENBERG VILLAGE, Calif. - A simulated, but realistic car wreck was staged Wednesday morning at Cabrillo High School to help teach students about the dangers of drunk driving.

"You just saw bodies lying on the ground covered in blood," said Cabrillo High School senior Tobyn Jory. "It was really shocking, and then police cars and firefighters and ambulance, they all came in with their sirens on."

The crash was a dramatic and emotional reenactment of an actual drunk driving wreck and is the centerpiece of the Every 15 Minutes national program.

"Every 15 minutes is a program developed by the CHP in the 1980s as a response to the rising concern of crash related and driving under the influence, injuries and deaths occurring nationwide," said Lt. Commander Jason Bronson, with the California Highway Patrol Buellton Office. "The presentation is quite involved, using student role players from the high school, as well as their families and all of our partners, in the community to put on a mock crash scene, where the students will witness the entirety of an event from the first emergency call to the arrest of a, alleged DUI driver and a medical flight for a critically injured occupant." 

Held at the school's upper athletic field, the Every 15 Minutes event took place for about 45 minutes and was attended by the entire Cabrillo High School student body.

"It was just kind of horrible to see and I think this is a great program to kind of give a more of an insightful approach to warning kids of the dangers," said Cabrillo High School senior Keylan Howard. "Even though we all went in knowing that this was fake and that our friends are still alive, when you're sitting in the stands and you're seeing your friends covered in blood and crying, it's a whole different thing."

"It's really impactful to see," said Natalie McCune, a Cabrillo High School senior. "I'm friends with a lot of people who were involved in it and, to see one of my friends just laying right on the front of the car covered in blood was really, honestly, scary to see."

On Thursday, the program will conclude with an assembly for juniors and seniors only, where a funeral will be held for the two students who simulated dying in the car wreck.

"Tomorrow we're all going to attend their funeral," said McCune. "It's going to be an impactful moment for our school. The parents of the two victims who died are going to be speaking. They also have a speaker who, was involved in a drunk driving accident, so we're going to see how that really affected her life and kind of put into perspective how impactful this is."