Students Learn Impact of Impaired Driving

Inderkum Participates in Realistic Every 15 Minutes Program

First responders use the jaws of life to extract a mock accident victim from a vehicle as part of “Every 15 Minutes.” / Photo: Madison Price

A CHP helicopter was among the emergency vehicles which responded to the mock accident scene at Inderkum High School / Photo: Madison Price

THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz

Several emergency vehicles descended on Inderkum High School Thursday morning.

But the ambulance, police care, fire engine, CHP helicopter, coroner and tow trucks were not responding to an actual emergency on the Natomas-area campus, they were part of a intense, lifelike safety drill. The goal: reducing alcohol-related incidents among youth drivers.

The North Sacramento California Highway Patrol partnered with Inderkum High to simulate a driving traffic collision as part of the “Every 15 Minutes” program.

The collision was staged on school grounds at about 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 5. The demonstration lasted for about an hour and featured real-life first responders as well as Inderkum students made up and staged as if they were accident victims.

Inderkum students were made up to depict accident victims during Every 15 Minutes. / Photo: Madison Price

“Every 15 Minutes” is a two-day program which demonstrates to high school students the impact drinking and driving has on friends, families and their community. The program’s name is based on data that in the early 1990’s, someone in the United States died in an alcohol-related traffic collision every 15 minutes.

The first day of the program simulates a traffic collision caused by an impaired teenage driver and a fatally injured victim. The second day of the program includes an all-school assembly with law enforcement chaplains and includes a “memorial service” for the mock accident victim.

The event was coordinated by the California Highway Patrol with support from the City of Sacramento, Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento Fire Department, LJ’s Towing, and other community partners. Funding for the program was provided by a grant from the California Office of the Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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The coroner takes transports the mock accident victim from the scene during “Every 15 Minutes” at Inderkum High. / Photo: Madison Price