Learning from past DUIs

When Mikey Molina saw the staged wrecked car, police and paramedics scrambling around and a person being taken away in a body bag outside of Costa Mesa High School Wednesday, it reminded him of a scene he saw a few years ago.

“It’s so crazy; a life can be taken just like that,” the 17-year-old junior said, snapping his fingers.

A couple of years ago Molina was at the Fairview Road and Adams Avenue intersection when he saw a DUI car crash.

A car making a left turn lost control, flipped over and slammed into a pole, scattering beer cans everywhere. The driver ran away, but the passenger had to be treated on the scene, Molina said.

He could still describe what it was like to see medics cut open the man’s shirt and try to save him right there on the asphalt.

Molina isn’t sure what happened to the man the paramedics were working on, whether he lived or died, but he did see the real effects of drinking and driving.

Every 15 minutes someone somewhere in the country dies in a drunken driving accident, police say. In their annual Every 15 Minutes program for students, police try to create as realistic a scene as they can of the consequences of drinking and driving. Police even take 25 students through the step-by-step process of a DUI crash. Police took students to jail, then to court and finally to the mortuary.

Wednesday’s presentation reminded 15-year-old Estephany Velasquez of when her aunt was hit by a drunken driver.

“I imagined she was in one of those cars,” Velasquez said.

The Every 15 Minutes program is a two-day educational program that aims to get the “it can’t happen to me” attitude out of teens’ heads, Sgt. Rob Sharpnack said.

“There’s a very real chance that someone in their class or in their school could be the victim of a DUI tragedy,” Sharpnack said. “This is a very real, shocking program. We’re trying to drive that point home to them.”

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.