April 5, 2007

A crash course in drunk driving

CHP, fire, police and ambulance personnel descend upon Valley
Christian High School for ‘Every 15 Minutes’ program

By Anna Iuppa
Special to the Times

On March 21 three Valley Christian High School students were killed in a head-on, alcohol-related traffic collision. The horrific accident took place at 10:30 a.m. at Valley Christian’s high school campus. The only survivor, senior Peter Stanco, was the driver of one of the vehicles and ironically the only one under the influence of alcohol.

An “Every 15 Minutes” presentation was staged at Valley Christian High School on March 21 in the staff parking lot. It involved staff from the CHP, the San Jose Fire Department, the San Jose Police Department, American Medical Response and the county Coroner’s office. Photos by Stephen Torode

Bystanders watched horrified as police and ambulance workers came to the scene and evacuated the two other passengers who were confirmed dead at around 11:30 a.m. after reaching a nearby hospital.

Nobody came out of the accident unscathed.

Funeral services were held inside Valley’s large gymnasium the following morning at 10:30 a.m. Friends and family were filled with grief, as parents and those close to the deceased made gut-wrenching speeches honoring those lost. The students, faculty and parents affected by their deaths promised to forever keep these students’ spirits in their memories.

Fortunately, these deaths did not actually take place. However, considering the extent to which the American Medical Response Ambulance Company, the California Highway Patrol, the San Jose Fire Department and the San Jose Police Department worked to create an accurate, yet fictitious alcohol-related accident, it might just as well have been true.

The production, which has been performed since the early 1990s by the National Every 15 Minutes Foundation, is called “Every 15 Minutes” because every 15 minutes a person dies in an alcohol-related driving accident, and its purpose is to inform students and encourage them to make wise choices. The production is performed in schools throughout the nation and is essentially a second-chance for students, since “it offers a real-life experience without the real-life risk.”

Two young friends, played by Valley Christian students, played victims of the drunk driving crash. Photo by Stephen Torode

For Valley Christian High School, the production began on the morning of March 21 when a man dressed as the Grim Reaper went into the high school classes to pull out 16 previously selected juniors and seniors to serve as the “living dead,” or a representation of the number of people who would die from an alcohol-related traffic collision by the time the “Every 15 Minutes” presentation was complete. (The students chosen to participate in the program represent a cross-section of the entire student body.)

Later on in the morning, Valley Christian juniors and seniors were asked to assemble at the faculty parking lot. There they found the 16 students that were removed, whose faces were painted ghostly white, surrounding the tarp-covered cars of the fictitious accident. Next, students heard recordings of the 911 call on speakers and watched police officers, firemen and EMTs come on the scene to survey the damages.

Once the tarp was removed from the cars, students saw senior Alyssa Sinyard’s body smashed through the front window of one of the vehicles. For the next half an hour, they watched the workers destroy the other car in the accident by sawing off its roof and crashing its windows to safely remove seniors Kylie Gifford and Anthony Schmidt, who suffered from such severe injuries as collapsed lungs and a gouged-out eyeball.

Nicole Jackson, a student at Valley Christian High School, cries as she listens to her mother's eulogy about her during the funeral reenactment as part of the "Every 15 minutes" program on March 22. Photo by Dan Miranda

No shortcuts were taken as students witnessed police officers administer a field sobriety test which Stanco failed, place him under arrest and read him his Miranda rights before placing him in a police car to be hauled off to jail.
The Santa Clara County coroner pronounced Sinyard dead, and the EMTs fought valiantly to keep Gifford and Schmidt alive, while the Grim Reaper waited nearby. After all had left the scene, students were informed that a funeral would be held the next day for those lost in the accident.

The next morning at around 10:30 a.m. students attended a funeral, which began with a processional of all of the students involved in the performance. Several of the students served as pallbearers for a mahogany casket. A video was presented that showed not only what the students had seen the day before at the assembly, but also the jail cell, where Stanco had to spend the night; each parent receiving the news of the death of his or her child; Sinyard’s parents identifying her body; and the unsuccessful efforts to revive Schmidt and Gifford. Speeches were then made by the “living dead,” their parents, friends, and the head of the “Every 15 Minutes” production.

Peter Stanco, 18, spoke at the funeral. “I’m devastated that I killed my cousin. But, nobody asked me for my keys—not even my cousin—and I didn’t feel that drunk. Now I’m now facing prison time.”

Wendy Patience cries as she watches the video of the "Every 15 minutes" reenactment as part of the funeral proceedings at Valley Christian High School on March 21. Photos by Dan Miranda

There were few dry eyes in the room, as the reality that the consequences of one’s decisions can negatively impact so many lives set in.

The production left an imprint on the hearts and minds of every student, faculty member, and participant in the presentation. Gifford summed it up when she said, “This was the most intense thing I’ve ever been through. It really made me think about everything, and I felt like it made all of us think about the choices we make.”

Thanks to the passing of several new laws regarding drinking and driving and “Every 15 Minutes” presentations nationwide, the number of deaths as a result of drunk driving has declined and it is estimated that there is actually a life taken every 30 minutes in the United States as the result of alcohol-related driving accidents.

With prom and graduation season just around the corner, hopefully students will remember the effect that this presentation had on them and use this knowledge to make thoughtful choices involving drinking and driving such as never getting into a car with someone who has been drinking and if necessary, calling their parents for a safe ride home.

For more information on the ‘Every 15 Minutes’ program, visit the California Highway Patrol Web site at www.chp.ca.gov/ or the national ‘Every 15 Minutes’ Web site at www.every15Minutes.com.

Anna Iuppa is a Valley Christian High School senior.