'Every 15 Minutes' Aims To Show Consequences Of Distracted, Impaired Driving
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- There was an accident scene at Rangeview High School in Aurora on Thursday. Everything looked real from the mangled cars to the bloody faces, but it was all staged.
The wreckage was part of a program called "Every Fifteen Minutes" that encourages teenagers to be safe behind the wheel of a car because there are dire consequences to distracted and impaired driving.
Kenneth Forrest with Aurora police explains, "Every fifteen minutes on average someone's either killed or seriously injured in a motor vehicle crash."
Students at Rangeview High School came together with the Aurora Police Department, the Aurora Fire Department and paramedics to create the very realistic car crash reenactment.
"Putting this project together has been pretty intense and stressful," said student Dejuan Chapa. "We did put in a lot of effort all day today. For the past 24 hours, we've been planning and doing makeup and staging the crash."
The goal was to show the student body at Rangeview what a serious wreck actually looks like.
"It's a great way of just educating our youth and just the public in general" said Forrest. "There are simple things you can do to save your life or the life of someone else."
The hope is that when students get in a car as a passenger, or behind the wheel, they make good decisions.
"Anything can be distracting from too loud of music to texting to drunk driving," said Chapa.
He also has a warning for his peers, "None of us are invincible and anything can happen to them at any time when they get behind the wheel."
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Michael Abeyta is a 4th generation Coloradan and a Multimedia Journalist for CBS4. His stories can be seen on CBS4 News at 5 & 6. He is on Twitter! Follow him @AbeytaCBS4.