In the United States, someone is hurt or killed in traffic every 15 minutes because of a drunk driver. On March 24, Point Loma High School students and San Diego police and fire personnel teamed up to create a simulated fatal DUI car crash on Chatsworth Boulevard next to the school and in front of the student body to emphasize the dangers of drinking and driving. In the dramatization, Point Loma student Britt Heramb is the drunk driver who hits another vehicle, filled with three other PLHS students. The result is horrifying. The passenger in Heramb’s car, Lily Lutz, has been ejected through the windshield and is DOA on the hood. Jaylen Griffin, one of the passengers in the second vehicle, is seriously injured, and the other passenger, Jaime Medina, is paralyzed and must be extricated from the back seat. The second vehicle’s driver, Aidan Yackly, suffers minor injuries. Heramb fails several sobriety tests and is taken away in a police cruiser while her friend, Lutz, is taken away in a hearse. “As you can see, your friend didn’t make it. The three passengers in the other car are badly injured and taken to hospital,” the police officer says to Heramb.
The student body, mostly sitting on the lawn and close to the crash site, stayed silent and serious during the simulation.
Tony Contreras, public information officer of San Diego CHP, said that the nationwide program “Every 15 Minutes” teaches the kids the dangers of drinking and driving. “We tell the students the consequences if they get involved in a traffic collision while driving drunk. It can potentially be fatal and also lead to prosecution.”
The message is clear: Do not drink and drive. If you are caught drinking and driving, you will be placed under arrest and prosecuted, Contreras added. “You can potentially be a victim from a DUI driver and you can potentially lose your life, which is something that we saw here today,” Contreras said. In the simulation, students saw one classmate die and another, who was a star athlete, paralyzed as a result of one person driving drunk. The shock value was huge.
“If we can save one life, we’ve done our job. I think the kids got the message,” Contreras said.
Principal Hans Becker was silent after the powerful dramatization. He said he was looking at the students’ faces and noticed that everyone’s eyes were fixed on the scene. He said that if this powerful message makes a difference in even one student’s life, then it’s all worth it.
“Teenagers sometimes seem like they are invulnerable and I think life is frail and precious and should be recognized,” Becker said.
He hopes that students take something away from high school that they remember the rest of their lives. He thinks that school is more than just academics, it’s about growing up.
“It’s being mindful about how special you are in this world,” Becker said.