By Maureen Dunn
Every 15 minutes there is a car accident as a result of substance abuse. Approximately 8,000 people die due to alcohol or drug-related accidents. To show high schoolers exactly how serious and common these tragic events are, every two years the school has a realistic demonstration involving students, police, and firefighters made possible by a grant and the Henderson Police Department–it has come to be known as Every 15 Minutes.
On Thursday, Nov. 20, this year’s simulated accident involved four students. In one car were seniors Jake Chir and Anastasia Robinson, and Hunter Cordova, junior. In the other, John Farella, senior, played the role of the driver under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The Walking Dead, 26 other students representing substance-abuse-related fatalities, stood by the accident with the Grim Reaper, wearing toe tags around their necks.
When police drove up to the scene, there were only two responsive students: Farella, the drunk driver, and Cordova in the back seat of the other vehicle. Robinson was in the front passenger seat while Chir, the driver, was thrown through the windshield and onto the hood of the car.
“The Every 15 Minutes simulation was life changing for me,” Leonardo Navarrete, junior, said. “I would never drink and drive, but when I saw the accident, it made this real.”
As the ambulance pulled up onto the scene, two police officers went to each smashed car to assess the injuries. Chir, the first to receive medical attention, was strapped onto a gurney and set aside after being pronounced dead at the scene. Robinson had a broken neck and other serious injuries. She was mercy flown by helicopter and died en route to the hospital. The only way firefighters could reach Cordova in the backseat was by using the “jaws of life” to saw off the car’s front doors and roof. She was put onto a stretcher and taken by ambulance to the hospital where she died later that day.
After questioning Farella, the officers removed him from the car and gave him DUI test under the assumption that alcohol could be involved. Upon investigating the car, they found a bottle of prescription medication and two empty cans of beer. After being asked to perform multiple tasks, police arrested Farella for driving under the influence, placed him in handcuffs and escorted him to the Henderson Police Station.
“As a driver I have fortunately not had to witness an accident yet so this helped open my eyes that this is happens everyday,” Garrett DePaulis, junior, said.
Later, a member of the CSI came onto the scene to take photographs of both vehicles and Chir. Another member questioned one of the officers and took more pictures as documentation. They also called Chir’s time of death at 11:20 a.m. They tagged him, placed him in a body bag, and moments later, his parents identified his body.The crowd was quiet as they drove his body away in a hearse.
“It made me think twice about getting in a car with someone who might drink beforehand,” Allison Orlinick, junior, said. “It’s really scary to think that it could be my friend.”
Mrs. Diffley, a school counselor, read both Chir and Robinson’s obituaries out loud following the simulation. With tears in her eyes, Diffley, along with two fellow speakers, spoke of the dangers of driving under the influence.
Students made their way back to class, many with tears in their eyes. Throughout the day, they passed by a mock cemetery set up in the courtyard and read the obituaries taped to the windows of the administrative offices. On Friday, they attended an assembly where those who had died read letters to their parents, and they listened to speakers who had lived through the loss of loved ones due to real substance abuse situations.
