PHS provides crash course on DUI dangers

By Pat Kumpan

Emergency workers scrambled to extricate a crash “victim” during a mock DUI accident Tuesday at Poway High School’s stadium.

Poway High School student Jimmy Moreno (under tarp) “dies” during a simulated DUI crash Tuesday at Titan Stadium. Photo by Steve Logsdon

For some, the accident was more real than simulated, because students were thinking about friends who died in such crashes, said those portraying the “Living Dead,” seniors and a few juniors with faces painted in somber tones to portray those who died in DUI accidents.

Division Chief Jon Canavan was there to assist with the mock accident, made more personal because his son, Hayden Canavan, was portraying the victim being pulled out of the vehicle.

From the sidelines, Canavan watched paramedics transport his son to a nearby hospital.

As a dad and a firefighter, Canavan said, “It was a scary thing.”

Yes, it was fake, but an element of it felt very real, he added.

Katie Harrison portrayed an injured passenger in the car with Canavan during the mock incident.

Ryan Moreno, who portrayed the DUI driver in another car, was asked to complete field sobriety tests and later appeared before a San Diego judge to learn he would be facing DUI charges.

The assembly is called “Every 15 Minutes” because someone dies that frequently nationwide in a DUI accident, according to Traci Barker-Ball, PHS’s Student Support Services Coordinator.

The California Highway Patrol gave PHS a $10,000 grant to pay for Tuesday’s assembly, which had cooperation from Poway Sheriffs, firefighters and others.

For students Brooke Stark and Anna Schwab it was their senior project, a message they felt passionate about sharing with fellow students.

Senior Brit Bastow was one of the Living Dead, remaining silent for most of the day to understand how he and others would feel if they died and could not to speak to friends and family — ever again.

“Suddenly, you see all your classmates and how they’re looking at you,” Bastow added.

As one of the Living Dead, he was expected to write a letter to his parents Tuesday night about how much he missed them — and what to say, if he could.

In return, he would be getting a letter from his parents about how his “death” affected them.

“I’ll be letting them know in that letter how much I appreciate them,” Bastow added.

For Jim and Jackie Moreno, watching their son Jimmy Moreno  be transported by firefighters to a black hearse was almost unbearable.

It was, after all, a simulated crash, but Moreno’s “body” smashed through a friend’s car windshield killing him, but he laid under a tarp until someone pronounced him dead.

“It felt surreal, definitely an eye-opener to make you think about what not to do,” he said.

When his parents spoke to him after the presentation, they said seeing him with fake blood smeared across arms, legs and part of his body made them think of “too many of our Poway High kids who have died,” said the couple.

“It’s a level of pain you never want to even imagine — it makes you think,” said Jim Moreno.

Wednesday this week a second part of the event was held as an assembly with Cindi Aguirre and her son Andrew speaking about daughter and sister Veronica Aquirre who died in a DUI crash in December 2009.

Elaine Durham, a former PHS campus security worker, also spoke about her husband, Marc Durham, who died in 2010 when his car was struck from behind by a drunk motorist.

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Posted by patkumpan on Feb 8 2012. Filed under Featured Story, Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry