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Mock crash ‘looks real’
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| Emergency personnel work the scene of a staged DUI crash in front of Crescenta Valley High on Tuesday. The event held was to show students the dangers of drunk driving. (Roger Wilson/Glendale News-Press) |
High school hosts ‘Every 15 Minutes’ event showing kids a drunk-driving crash’s grisly aftermath.
By Angela Hokanson
Juniors and seniors from Crescenta Valley High School stepped out of their school and onto Ramsdell Avenue on Tuesday morning and were confronted with a grisly tableau.
Two mangled cars were before them, one in the middle of the street, one on the curb. A girl lay motionless on the pavement. Other students hung out of the two cars, covered in blood from injuries they’d supposedly endured in a car crash.
The scene was a simulation of the aftermath of a drunk-driving collision, and had been staged as part of a drunk-driving awareness program called “Every 15 Minutes.” The program’s title comes from the statistic that every 15 minutes someone in the U.S. is injured or killed in an alcohol-related car crash, said Bill Torley, a Glendale police officer and coordinator of the event.
As half the student body at the high school stepped outside to watch the drama unfold, they first saw three students who had witnessed the fictitious crash racing back and forth between the wrecked cars, panicking as they saw the severity of the victims’ injuries.
“Oh my God — there’s someone in the street,” said Callie Perry, 17, as she ran over to the student who lay on the pavement with her head in a pool of blood.
Earlier that morning, seven Crescenta Valley High students who were acting as participants in the crash had taken their places within the scene. Professional makeup artists had painted them with blood and fake injuries to make the crash look real.
According to the story line of the simulation, 17-year-old Alan Bagatourian had been speeding down Ramsdell Avenue in a black Acura while intoxicated. He smashed his car into a silver Toyota, which in turn spun out and struck a pedestrian who had been crossing the street. The passenger in the front of Alan’s car, K.J. Kussman, had been thrown through the windshield. He wouldn’t survive. Nor would the pedestrian, Hannah Park, or the driver of the second car, Andrea Hill.
“That looks pretty real, doesn’t it?” Justin Herrera, 16, said to a friend as he looked at the bloodied crash victims in front of him.
Witnesses called 911, and soon were joined by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol officers, and firefighters from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who treated the wreckage like a real accident scene.
Firefighters checked Park’s pulse and covered her body with a sheet when they found none. They extracted the passengers from both cars, prying open doors and ripping off the car roofs to remove the injured teenagers.
California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Workman gave a field sobriety test to Alan and took him away in handcuffs.
The deceased were then loaded into the coroner’s van.
Even though the onlookers knew the accident was staged, some students became emotional as they watched the vivid scene and said they couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like if a similar thing had really happened.
Acting the part of the witness, Callie had started out pretending to cry; by the end of the exercise, as she watched her classmates’ bodies being carried away, her tears were sincere.
“If this was real, they’d all be gone,” she said.
Watching such a real-life drunk-driving drama was powerful, said 18-year-old Mackinsey Woolever, who choked up as she talked about what she’d just seen.
“It actually makes you stop and think,” she said.
The drama continued in the afternoon as some of the severely injured students were brought to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and the drunk-driving suspect was to be booked in Glendale City Jail and tried in Glendale Superior Court. The entire escapade was videotaped and will be shown to the juniors and seniors during a school assembly today, Torley said.
It was the first time the “Every 15 Minutes” program had taken place at Crescenta Valley High, Torley said. In the last two years, Glendale High and Hoover High had hosted the program. This year, at the request of several members of the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education, Torley brought the event at Crescenta Valley High, with the help of public safety agencies that serve the La Crescenta area.
School board Vice President Joylene Wagner said she is affected by the event each time she sees it.
“You never know which student might remember this day at a critical moment,” she said.
Two mangled cars were before them, one in the middle of the street, one on the curb. A girl lay motionless on the pavement. Other students hung out of the two cars, covered in blood from injuries they’d supposedly endured in a car crash.
The scene was a simulation of the aftermath of a drunk-driving collision, and had been staged as part of a drunk-driving awareness program called “Every 15 Minutes.” The program’s title comes from the statistic that every 15 minutes someone in the U.S. is injured or killed in an alcohol-related car crash, said Bill Torley, a Glendale police officer and coordinator of the event.
As half the student body at the high school stepped outside to watch the drama unfold, they first saw three students who had witnessed the fictitious crash racing back and forth between the wrecked cars, panicking as they saw the severity of the victims’ injuries.
“Oh my God — there’s someone in the street,” said Callie Perry, 17, as she ran over to the student who lay on the pavement with her head in a pool of blood.
Earlier that morning, seven Crescenta Valley High students who were acting as participants in the crash had taken their places within the scene. Professional makeup artists had painted them with blood and fake injuries to make the crash look real.
According to the story line of the simulation, 17-year-old Alan Bagatourian had been speeding down Ramsdell Avenue in a black Acura while intoxicated. He smashed his car into a silver Toyota, which in turn spun out and struck a pedestrian who had been crossing the street. The passenger in the front of Alan’s car, K.J. Kussman, had been thrown through the windshield. He wouldn’t survive. Nor would the pedestrian, Hannah Park, or the driver of the second car, Andrea Hill.
“That looks pretty real, doesn’t it?” Justin Herrera, 16, said to a friend as he looked at the bloodied crash victims in front of him.
Witnesses called 911, and soon were joined by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol officers, and firefighters from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who treated the wreckage like a real accident scene.
Firefighters checked Park’s pulse and covered her body with a sheet when they found none. They extracted the passengers from both cars, prying open doors and ripping off the car roofs to remove the injured teenagers.
California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Workman gave a field sobriety test to Alan and took him away in handcuffs.
The deceased were then loaded into the coroner’s van.
Even though the onlookers knew the accident was staged, some students became emotional as they watched the vivid scene and said they couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like if a similar thing had really happened.
Acting the part of the witness, Callie had started out pretending to cry; by the end of the exercise, as she watched her classmates’ bodies being carried away, her tears were sincere.
“If this was real, they’d all be gone,” she said.
Watching such a real-life drunk-driving drama was powerful, said 18-year-old Mackinsey Woolever, who choked up as she talked about what she’d just seen.
“It actually makes you stop and think,” she said.
The drama continued in the afternoon as some of the severely injured students were brought to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, and the drunk-driving suspect was to be booked in Glendale City Jail and tried in Glendale Superior Court. The entire escapade was videotaped and will be shown to the juniors and seniors during a school assembly today, Torley said.
It was the first time the “Every 15 Minutes” program had taken place at Crescenta Valley High, Torley said. In the last two years, Glendale High and Hoover High had hosted the program. This year, at the request of several members of the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education, Torley brought the event at Crescenta Valley High, with the help of public safety agencies that serve the La Crescenta area.
School board Vice President Joylene Wagner said she is affected by the event each time she sees it.
“You never know which student might remember this day at a critical moment,” she said.
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