Letter to the Editor: Every 15 Minutes

Over this last Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the “Every Fifteen Minutes” drunk driving presentation produced by juniors and seniors at the South Pasadena High School.

Thursday was the staged crash, injury, and death of the students and the video taping of the aftermath, hospital care, and the unfortunate “pronouncement” of death of one of the student actors. Friday was the high school assembly that showed the video and featured an “obituary” of the student and the reading of a letter written by a grieving mother. There was not a dry eye in the auditorium. After more than three decades in law enforcement I am still unable to choke back my emotions and fight the tears for the sadness expressed by the students. This was almost as real as it gets.

The students, faculty, first responders, California Highway Patrol, and elected and appointed officials that were instrumental in presenting this event are to be congratulated. It was a powerful message that the mixing of alcohol and driving an automobile by under-aged persons must not be tolerated. As we approach the upcoming high school proms and the end of the school year, this should be a constant reminder of the dangers posed by this reckless behavior. On average of every 15 minutes, someone in the United States dies in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver.

South Pasadena Police Officers will enforce a zero-tolerance enforcement policy against underage persons suspected of consuming alcohol, driving or not. Parties or other gatherings where alcohol is consumed by minors will be targeted. Adults who allow or enable teens to consume alcohol will be targeted as well. Conviction of alcohol related crimes may result in the revocation or delay of a teenager’s driving privilege.

Please do not allow the sadness expressed by these student actors to become all too real.