Getting a first hand glimpse into the dangers of drunk driving and texting while driving, Wilcox High School students witnessed the reality of the dangers of drinking and driving in the Every 15 Minutes program April 1-2.
The program opens with a staged fatal car collision, involving five Wilcox students at the football stadium at Wilcox High School. With an apparent dead body ejected onto the field, a tipped vehicle up on end and two other severely damaged vehicles, students saw emergency personnel respond to the accident – including EMS responders verifying the ejected driver was deceased. The drunken driver is sobriety field-tested and arrested, while another victim is cut from another vehicle and rushed to Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara with life-threatening injuries.
On the second day of the program, a mock funeral for the deceased victims of the accident was held. Guest speakers, including students and parents, talked about how drunk drivers impacted their lives and how they would feel if their child had really been killed or injured in a DUI collision.
The Santa Clara Police Department and Santa Clara Unified School District’s purpose for presenting the program is “educating our high school age youth at a critical point in their lives and to provide students powerful insight, through realistic dramatization, into the ramifications of drinking and driving.”
The program was made possible by SCUSD, SCPD, Santa Clara Fire Department, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Wilcox High School, Wilcox High School PTA, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Hospital, Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Lima Family Mortuary, Plaza Suites Hotel, Unique Towing, Cute Flowers, Santa Clara Police Officer’s Association, Gary Alver, Video Production and many individual donors from the community.