Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Every 15 Minutes’ a valuable learning experience

Every 15 Minutes at Liberty - 2009

After cutting the roof off a vehicle during the Every 15 Minutes program, Henderson firefighter paramedics rush to the aid of Liberty High seniors Ali Fragoso and Nadia Cedillo-Quintero, who are trapped in the vehicle of a mock alcohol-related car crash at Liberty High School. Launch slideshow »

The Every 15 Minutes program will take place at Foothill High School Thursday morning. While it may seem like old news to some who have been around Henderson awhile, this program never loses its importance.

When I worked at parks and recreation, I was fortunate enough to be part of the very first pilot of Henderson’s Every 15 Minutes program, which was coincidentally held at Foothill High School, in October 2000. The parks and recreation department provides bleachers and staging, as well as sound systems for the program that is coordinated and put on by the Henderson Police Department.

I was only 19 years old at the time and working at this event sure didn’t feel like I was “working.” I was learning. The crash simulation is very scary looking and feels real. Two mangled cars are brought by tow trucks to a street in front of the school and are placed just like they were involved in a head-on crash. Participants from the Henderson Fire Department then do a great job of spreading glass and car parts around the scene. Watching them do this reminded me that it is something they see far too often, so for a firefighter to know the placement of some glass or a bumper could be something he has embedded in his mind.

Students are selected and made up with stage makeup to look like they have been involved in the accident, complete with cuts and bleeding gashes to their faces. I was always intrigued every time I worked the event to watch the firefighters place the students inside the mangled wreck. Some were placed as though they came through the windshield upon impact.

During the crash scene, nothing is said to the students besides a simple explanation from police and fire officials of the events that are occurring, and how the victims are being extracted and the suspects given sobriety tests which leads to arrest. When the coroner arrives, I think that it is the scariest and most thought provoking of all the events the students witness. The coroner takes the victims who have “died” and puts them in a body bag, zipped up to the toe-tag, and into the coroner’s vehicle.

After the crash, students are released back to their classes until the next day when a mock funeral is held for the crash victims, and the students are given the speeches, examples, and realities of what drunk driving can do to them, their families, and other families.

Once again, as I worked the sound system at the assembly each time I was involved with the program, I was brought to tears. If this is the first you’ve read about Henderson’s program, I challenge you to look into it. There are many archived articles about the program, as it is held so that every junior and senior in our city can experience it.

When I asked Henderson Police Department public information officer Todd Rasmussen how he feels about the program, he said, “Any time a teenager is behind the wheel, it is dangerous. When you add alcohol into the mix, it’s even more dangerous. Anytime the police department has a chance to educate them on the dangers of drinking and driving, we take advantage of it.”

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