Andrew EdwardsThe event was not real, but...

Andrew Edwards

The event was not real, but the emotions were.

Fire department paramedic Capt. Don Spreeman and his wife, Mary

Ann, had to identify the body of their son, Donald, who had been

“killed” in a staged traffic collision.

It was ironic, the paramedic said, to be on the other side of

tragedy.

“We’re usually the ones who go out and help people,” he said.

“Going to the morgue, having to identify him, having to see him in

a body bag, I don’t see how he could control himself, seeing his mom

break down,” the fire captain said.

The fact that the ordeal was a simulation did not make much

difference for the Spreemans.

“When you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t seem fake,” Mary Ann

Spreeman said.

And that’s exactly the point of the “Every 15 Minutes,” program,

organizers said as Edison High School staged its version April 21.

Mixing bloody realism with theatrical touches, shattered glass was

spilled all over the street. Students playing the roles of crash

victims were made up as if they had suffered horrible injuries while

the malevolent presence of the Grim Reaper stood among the wreckage.

Students filled bleachers set up along Hamilton Avenue to watch

simulated emergency unfold.

Fire engines, ambulances and police cars rushed to the accident

after a recorded 911 call was played. Volunteers removed tarps that

covered three teenage victims.

School leaders and public safety authorities hoped the simulation

would be a sobering warning on the perils of drunk driving.

“If we can get those messages out to kids, hopefully, we’ll save

lives,” said Dave Adams, vice principal for activities.

The presentation gets its name from the fact that on average

someone in California dies in an alcohol-related crash every 15

minutes. To drive the message home, Donald Spreeman, who was sprawled

on the street outside of an overturned car, was one of the students

pronounced “dead” in front of the Chargers’ student body.

“It was crazy,” Donald Spreeman said. “It felt like it was real.”

Students heard the voice of a paramedic treating Donald Spreeman

over the sound of his pulse on a machine slowing down to the

high-pitched monotone of a flat-line.

“Let’s stop, we’re not going to be able to resuscitate him,” the

paramedic said.

The paramedics took away the other two teenagers, Sean McBride and

Jackie Thompson in an ambulance. Police Officer Eric Heimert arrested

the driver, played by Kelsey Bowman after she failed a pretend field

sobriety test.

Kelsey plans to attend Vanguard University on a soccer scholarship

after graduating from Edison. She said that if she behaved in real

life like the character she played, her dreams could come to an end.

“If I really did drink and drive I could take all that away,” she

said.

The students who played the parts of the victims were kept from

their parents overnight and wrote letters to their families on what

they would have wanted to say to their families. Parents wrote

similar letters to their children.

Participants in the simulation shared their experiences with the

Chargers at a second assembly on Thursday, which Adams simply

described as, “very emotional.”