Drunk driving dangers hit home at TOHS

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers ANOTHER 'VICTIM'--Firemen carry away a "victim" involved in a simulated vehicle crash as part of the "Every 15 Minutes" event at Thousand Oaks High School. It demonstrates what can happen to students who drive or ride with motorists who are intoxicated. A tow truck hoisted a smashed older-model Toyota Camry onto its bed, while Thousand Oaks police officers filled out paperwork and swept up shards of glass at the intersection of Moorpark Road and Avenida de Las Flores.

Although the scene was the aftermath of a mock two-car collision near the entrance to Thousand Oaks High School, it was just the beginning of a program designed to warn students about the dangers of drunken driving.

In the reenactment, two teenagers died at the scene and three others were badly injured while the 16-year-old driver, played by senior Bryan Lawrence, escaped with only a scrape on the head. A sobriety test revealed a blood-alcohol content of 0.18 percent, and Bryan was hauled off to jail.

All TOHS juniors and seniors sat in bleachers, watching their peers emerge from the cars and some taken away in body bags. Others were strapped onto stretchers and shoved into ambulances after being freed by the Jaws of Life. All personnel on the scene, including police officers, paramedics and firefighters, wore microphones so the students in the bleachers could hear their interaction.

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers A FATAL ERROR--The door of a crunched car was ripped away with the Jaws of Life to reach one of the "victims" in a simulated crash during the "Every 15 Minutes" event held at Thousand Oaks High School. The disastrous consequences of drunk driving were presented to students of TOHS from a variety of perspectives. "Every 15 Minutes," a program named for the statistic of how often a U.S. teen is killed by a drunk driver, is presented every two years at TOHS.

"It was very successful," said Pat Hanley, cochair of the program at TOHS. "It was really something where we had a huge gathering of the community coming together. Two City Council people were there (Councilmembers Tom Glancy and Jacqui Irwin). We really felt like we got the city's support."

Principal Tim Carpenter agreed.

"It was an excellent program," Carpenter said. "A lot of agencies came together to provide a very meaningful program for our students. I thought our students were incredibly attentive--very, very serious about the entire event."

Later in the day, a group of students toured the county medical examiner's office and heard about autopsies that had been performed on their peers.

They went on to the district attorney's office and witnessed a mock trial and sentencing of the drunk driver, whom they also saw behind bars. He was convicted of two counts of vehicular manslaughter, with extra prison time for driving under the influence while underage.

Principal Carpenter experienced the program for the first time this year, although it's the third time "Every 15 Minutes" has been on the TOHS campus.

"It was very powerful and very moving," Carpenter said, "not only to those students who played the living dead or were involved in the crash scene--I think it affected them from a whole different viewpoint--but all the students, and the teachers and parents. It really got to the students as a whole and was very moving for everyone.

"It really has to make them think," Carpenter added.

"I can't imagine that they think just about life and mortality, but also about making good choices, what consequences could come from bad ones," he said.

In addition to the main attraction--the crash--every 15 minutes throughout the day, the Grim Reaper called a student out of class, announcing his death. Later in the evening, those students went on a retreat, where they wrote letters to parents and friends.

The next day a memorial was held for the dead at the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center.

"The overnight retreat was at . . . a very isolated environment," Hanley said. "The role players wrote what they felt, what they wanted to say. It was unbelievable.

"And at the memorial service, a couple of young men that had been in accidents and had brain injury problems spoke. So did another who had lost a couple of friends in an accident--he is a recovering alcoholic. I think it really shook the kids into reality."