CONCORD, CA (Apr. 21, 2025) — Just one choice, one second, can completely devastate an entire community and the ripples of destruction resulting from drunk driving accidents are endless.  Every 15 minutes a person in the United States dies in an alcohol-related car crash, a statistic at the time that brought a community together to create the Every 15 Minutes program in the 1990s and in March they brought it to the students at Clayton Valley Charter High School.

Students experienced this harsh reality firsthand as classmates were taken away from classes and headstones and memorials showed up in the quad with pictures of those students. In my first period calculus class, Austin Figueira was taken by the police and reported to have died in a DUI-related crash early that morning. A single rose marked his absence. He, along with 20+ members of the student body and faculty took on the roles of DUI victims and were not to be seen again until the presentation later that afternoon.

Leading up to the presentation, every 15 minutes in fact, the loud speakers at school would play the eerie sound of a heartbeat, an uncanny sound to cut into an English lecture. Unsure and weary, the CV juniors and seniors made their way to the football stadium and were shocked to arrive at a simulated car crash scene. Suddenly, audio of a 911 call played over the loudspeakers, with CV’s own Mia Ramirez calling in reporting an accident.

As the scene played out on the track, members of the audience looked on in horror as they saw their friends and classmates get out of the cars, covered in fake blood and shaking. I was stunned to see Austin, from my calculus class, laying there motionless, playing dead on the hood of the car. Cop cars, fire trucks, and ambulances swarmed the scene, and with various simulated injuries, casualties and a guilty drunk driver, the first responders reenacted their response to these fatal calls. A helicopter took away a paralyzed Ava Chan, and Anja Perreira and her father, Clayton Valley teacher and head of the Public Service Academy Dylan Perreira, were taken in an ambulance.

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A new perspective

Students soon became all too aware of what was occurring in front of their eyes, and the audience grew quiet as they watched their friends and classmates rush away. Still in disbelief, the juniors and seniors left the stadium, unsure of what was next. A full 24 hours passed, school went on as normal, practices for sports still played, but without the “living dead,” or those who had “died” in car crashes, there was a noticeable difference in the mundane daily tasks.

The same time the next day, students filed into the gym for a funeral, symbolic for all those lost to horrific alcohol-related collisions, like the one CVCHS students had witnessed their classmates go through the day before. A bagpipe played as the living dead students marched in carrying a casket, including Derek Townsend, playing the part of the DUI offender, dressed in orange and escorted by two police officers. Clayton Valley Executive Director Bill Morones spoke on behalf of all those impacted by the crashes and warned of the dangers of distracted driving.

Following the ominous introduction, a film, created by RocketSpots, was then played depicting the car crash with CV students, showing the before, during, and after the crash, with real testimonies from the kids and parents alike. The devastating impacts on their families and friends illustrated the value of a life and the cost to all those around them. Dylan Perreira, who was one of the living dead, reflects, “I think one of the main takeaways for me is that we think it can’t or won’t happen to us, but going through this experience reinforces how easily it could happen to any of us, at any time. One bad decision or one brief moment of taking your eyes off the road/being distracted could change your whole life, and the lives of others and their families, forever.”

Personal account

After the presentation, a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers representative gave her own personal account of losing her mother and best friend at 15 in a DUI crash. Her poignant story connected to me and much of the CV student body as she described the pain of having to choose her mother’s casket and continue on without her loved ones. Her story is sadly all too common. As evidenced by the staggering number of students that stood when members of the junior and senior classes impacted by alcohol-related collisions were prompted to stand up.

There were many red eyes across the gym as the students walked back to their fourth periods in silence. Striking and brutal, this simulation and eye-opening experience opened a period of reflection and reality for Clayton Valley, and the fragility of life was reinstated in the eyes of the young, aspirational students.

Thanks to the Concord Police, Contra Costa CHP, Contra Costa Fire, and John Muir Trauma Services for putting on this event and to the Every 15 Minutes Program and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers associations.

Corinne Jeandheur

Corinne Jeandheur is a senior at Clayton Valley Charter High School.  She runs on the CVCHS cross country team in the fall as well as competing on the track and field team in the spring.  She also plays the piano and bakes in her free time.  Jeandheur is a member of the CVCHS Engineering and Design Academy and concluded her sophomore year with a 4.33 GPA.  She is serving as co-president of the California Scholarship Federation at Clayton Valley Charter this school year and continuing her academic and community involvement in the National Honor Society. She is very pleased to be writing the monthly Athlete Spotlight for the Pioneer.