Every 15 minutes is a program created to spread awareness to teens of underage drinking and driving. It offers a real-life experience without the real-life risks. Students were chosen to participate in a crash simulation to portray an actual car crash. On March 3, 2016 certain juniors and seniors who attended Cesar Chavez High School pretended to have died in a DUI accident. The crash simulation was open to the juniors and seniors to view.

“I  feel that this experience did convey an actual collision caused by drunk driving. I also feel that it did effect many students greatly to see how it happens and what could happen,” said Briana Perez.

The scenario was some students got a hold of alcohol for a party. They became intoxicated and later got in Elijah Torres’ car. The crash simulation showed his car collided with a sober car. To make the scene even more realistic they had firefighters, police, and a helicopter.

“I enjoyed how realistic it was to have an actual car crash,” Briana Perez, senior, said, “and what and how it happens when it was a drunk driver that caused the car crash and how they had all the actual police, ambulances, highway patrol, the car to take the dead people, and helicopter to transport severely injured people.”

The purpose of the crash scene is to physically show and stress to students that the decision to consume alcohol can affect more people than just the one who drinks. Also that DUI accidents are serious and can have a big emotional effect on the people involved,their families ,and even observers of the crash.

“I learned in this experience to be aware of my actions when driving and who I get in the car with. Also that alcohol and driving should never be mixed,” Briana Perez, an interviewed spectator, said. “The crash did have an emotional impact on me because it can happen to anyone.”