Pitman’s junior and senior classes filed into rows of chairs set facing the track at nine in the morning on April 15th. Lady GaGa and Black-Eyed Peas songs boomed through the air as the students took their seats before a huge tarp strewn over the top of something massive. Light-hearted conversations and laughter could be heard all around. A couple people were swaying in their chairs along to “Poker Face”, occasionally glancing over at the tarp for a sign of movement to indicate the beginning of the presentation.
An ear-splitting POP! sounded from somewhere I couldn’t determine and I looked over to see billows of smoke rising from a mess of twisted metal; the remains of a car and a pick-up were exposed from beneath the tarp. The music stopped. Lisa Yang let out a blood-curdling scream from the back seat of the car and moans of agony came from Gustavo Verver in the passenger seat. A chilling silence was all that could be heard from the car’s driver, Lucas Giron.
Every fifteen minutes, a teenager is killed or injured in an alcohol or drug-related automobile accident; that is the message of this presentation. Aside from the physical trauma suffered by the victims, the emotional reverberations of a ten-second car crash can leave scars that will last for a lifetime. The cruel fact that our loved ones can disappear in the blink of an eye due to someone’s alcohol-addled irresponsibility is a chilling thought. In order to demonstrate the tragedy of such loss, Pitman High School, the Turlock Police Department and the Turlock Fire Department and several others contributed to the presentation of “Every Fifteen Minutes”, a show whose purpose is to exhibit the grizzly ramifications of driving under the influence.
The presentation takes place over the course of two days: the first day exposes Pitman’s junior and senior classes to a live replication of a car accident on the track and the second day plays out as a touching memorial to the victims of this crash and others. Lisa Yang, Gustavo Verver, Lucas Giron and Dwayne Grady each played a part in the presentation along with a cast of actual Turlock police officers and firefighters.
The first day of the presentation was a busy replication of the first few moments after a car crash and the hard work involved in deconstruction of the vehicle, transportation of the victims and the primary indictments against the “drunk driver” (played by Dwayne Grady). The proceedings present an accurate sequence of events which would follow an actual car crash. It was largely educational and riveting to watch firsthand.
On the following Friday, a memorial for the victims is held in the Pitman gymnasium. The bleachers are filled and the memorial begins.
The whole event starts off with an emotional video highlighting the victims of “Every Fifteen Minutes”—the souls of whom are collected by the “Grim Reaper” who stalks the campus during the two-day presentation. Videos are shown of the primary victims in the hospital immediately following the crash and the heart-breaking reactions of the victims’ parents when they are informed of their son or daughter’s death. In the video, the “drunk driver” is taken to jail and led through the protocol for arrestees. The whole affair is somber and engaging, captivating the audience’s attention and respect.
The video ended and a powerful speaker began to talk about the death of her daughter in an actual car crash. Her explicit descriptions of the day it happened and the detailing of her experiences as the horrors unfolded before her eyes were impactful and poignant. Not a dry eye could be seen in the audience when her story was finished. The “victims” at the front of the room were dabbing their eyes with Kleenex and a crushing solemnity hung in the room.
A reading of letters from the victims to their parents and vice versa followed the guest speaker. Every speaker was choked with tears and it was at this moment that I, your humble writer, began to cry as well. Everyone in the bleachers surrounding me was despondent and wetted in the eyes, and those who weren’t sat still with a steely silence. An overwhelming sense of brother- and sisterhood spread through the air. We were all here now. No one was “too cool to care”. No one remained apathetic in the atmosphere of mournful silence. We cared as one.
It wasn’t the elaborate car crash replication or the entrance of the chopper that affected me most profoundly. It was in the climate of the gym, surrounded by my junior and senior peers, that it hit me. Momentary irresponsibility can damage someone’s life forever. Every Fifteen Minutes was more than just a simple presentation—it was, without a doubt, an overwhelmingly powerful lesson.