Napa's Justin-Siena High School stages mock DUI wreck to teach a stark lesson

Thursday morning, Justin-Siena High School was the site of a pretend car crash that was meant to teach a stark and sobering lesson.

It looked like the real thing, a tragedy with all the trimmings. There were two smashed-up cars, an ambulance, law enforcement officers, firefighters, a medical helicopter, victims with fake blood and a crowd of onlookers.

The school held an “Every 15 Minutes” exercise in the parking lot fronting Maher Street. The program is designed to show teenagers the potential consequences of driving under the influence in a way that goes beyond textbooks.

Or, as the California Highway Patrol website puts it, the goal is to “create an awareness among students they are not invincible. This program helps open the emotional doors … They experience firsthand how their actions affect the lives of so many other people.”

At 11:45 a.m., the students gathered outside the school and watched as the imagery of a wreck's aftermath unfolded.

Justin-Siena senior Gabbie Davis was sprawled across the hood of one car, its windshield shattered, her forehead bloody. In the mock-accident scenario, she and her friends where driving to track when they got hit by another car.

"We're the unfortunate ones," Davis said.

Did she think the graphic display would discourage impaired driving? "I hope so," Davis said.

But in this scenario, she would have been incapable of this impromptu press interview. She was dead and would soon have emergency responders cover her with a yellow tarp.

Senior Hilary Klam sat on the curb, her head bandaged. The scenario described her and her friends drinking the previous night, awakening to find themselves late for school and then speeding, only to plow into the other car. She had been a passenger.

Klam thinks the demonstration is effective. "One thousand percent," she said.

It struck home with her. The scenario had her friends injured, Davis dead and the at-fault driver — her drinking buddy —in trouble with the law. Her acting went beyond what she expected.

"Immediately when I got out of the car, I started crying," Klam said, adding the scene felt both very real and very scary.

Justin-Siena students watched all of this from close up. They saw the emergency vehicles arrive with sirens wailing and the father break down when he learned his daughter had died.

Thursday's event is not the end. An assembly is planned for Friday that will feature testimonies from people who have lost loved ones to drunken drivers. School counselors are to be present in case any students need emotional support.

The program's name “Every 15 Minutes” comes from the frequency at which somebody is killed nationally from a drug- or alcohol-related crash, a school news release said.

Justin-Siena partnered with the Napa County Sheriff’s Office, Napa Police, Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Napa Fire, the California Highway Patrol and Napa County Coroner’s Office for the event.