'Every 15 Minutes' Drunk Driving Simulation Quiets High Schoolers

Piedmont high school students will attend a mock memorial service Tuesday for two of their classmates who played the casualties in a simulated drunk driving accident Monday. Piedmont Patch posted live updates to Twitter documenting Monday's dramatization of a crash on Highland Avenue moment-by-moment and will be tweeting the action again Tuesday. 

In a survey conducted last spring, 48 percent of and juniors said they had driven a car when they had been drinking or been in a car driven by a friend when s/he had been drinking. The Every 15 Minutes program was designed by California High Patrol to make teenagers realize the potential consequences of drinking and driving. The first act appeared to make an impact on Piedmont's students. 

The high schoolers who watched the scene unfold from bleachers set up along the curb Monday had arrived with smiles on their faces—many happy for the excuse to get out of class and get outside for the morning. They marched back to campus afterward in near silence. 

9:10 a.m. The fire trucks are rolling from Piedmont station to get into position for #Every15Minutes.

9:23 a.m. At the command post in the gym. It sounds like LMFAO's ode to drunkenness is thumping up in the dance studio. #Every15Minutes

9:30 a.m. About 50 parent volunteers have been involved in putting together the #Every15Minutes drunk driving simulation, some for nearly a year.

9:47 a.m. Walking to the crash site. KGO is interviewing the parent publicity chair. #Every15Minutes

9:51 a.m. A lot of communities stage #Every15Minutes during prom season, but Valerie Corvin says parents wanted to have the impact for the whole year.

9:56 a.m. @Piedmonthigh students are filing onto the bleachers on Highland Avenue. #Every15Minutes

10:00 a.m. Students in white "living dead" face paint are standing stone faced by two crashed cars draped with a blue tarp. #Every15Minutes

10:03 a.m. "Ah, you look so somber", jokes one student as she passes by her classmates playing the living dead. #Every15Minutes

10:11 a.m. Two kids ran away from the crash site. One has been detained. One appears dead. Two more injured. #Every15Minutes SIMULATION.

10:17 a.m. Firefighters and EMTs are at the simulated crash site. One fatality has been declared. A helicopter has been called in. #Every15Minutes

10:22 a.m. The jaws of life are being used to cut a student out of Saab convertible at the crash simulation. #Every15Minutes

10:32 a.m. A PHS student has been carted off in a body bag, another's being strapped to a stretcher at the simulated crash site. #Every15Minutes

10:37 a.m. A student stumbled as he walked the line, is now cuffed and in the back of a squad car at the simulated crash site. #Every15Minutes

10:44 a.m. Firefighters have swept up the simulated crash site. The students are walking back to class much quieter than they came. #Every15Minutes