Fleming High School takes part in two-day drunk and distracted driving simulation

Tuesday morning started out like any other at Fleming High School; students filed in to their classrooms, slowly found their seats and teachers began the day's lessons. It was like any other day ... until the Grim Reaper entered a classroom, tapped its first victim on the shoulder and removed a student from class. The exit followed with a reading of the students obituary and from then on, it was no longer just a normal day.

A partnership with the Colorado State Patrol and the Logan County Sheriff's Office brought the Every 15 Minutes program to Fleming High School last week. Every 15 Minutes is a two-day event designed to dramatically instill teens with the potentially dangerous consequences of impaired and distracted driving while encouraging the responsibility of mature decision making.

Every 15 minutes from the time the first victim was removed from class, the Grim Reaper claimed another victim while local law enforcement officers read student obituaries, written by family members. Obituaries included details of each students' life and information on memorial services to follow.

After lunch, Fleming High School students were ushered to the football field where a somber reminder of the consequences of impaired and distracted driving was staged in front of them. The living dead stood in the distance with the Grim Reaper, white painted on their faces to reflect their exit earlier. A mangled car sat in the forefront, two students remaining in the front seat, two in the back and one lying face down on the cold, wet grass.

As two students emerged from the wreckage, one called 911, setting into motion the real life events that take place when a motor vehicle accident occurs. The 911 caller said she and her friends had left a party in Fleming and were on Highway 6 on their way back to Sterling when they crashed near Stull Ranch. As sirens rang through the community, law enforcement officers, first responders and ambulance personnel arrived on scene.

The student body watched as action unfolded in front of them while Colorado State Patrol Trooper Shane Schliesser spoke over the loud speaker, giving detailed accounts about what was happening.

"This is the most common accident we see, a single vehicle roll over," Schliesser said. The Trooper said it is also common to see a victim, who is unrestrained, thrown from the vehicle.

While first responders and medical personal arrived quickly and the action happening in front of them played out as real as possible, Schliesser repeatedly told students that when this situation happens in real life, there is a major difference in response time for first responders.

"Sometimes it's 30, 40 minutes before we can get to you out here," he said while reminding students of the rural setting they live in. Schliesser said in rural Colorado, first responders are all volunteers and while the call for help may be immediately following the crash, it takes time for first responders get the call, respond to the fire hall and make their way to crash scene, which could be miles from town.

The two students who climbed out of the vehicle watched as first responders declared one student dead, the one in the grass who was thrown from the vehicle during the accident. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Schliesser said that often times victims are thrown in a roll over when unrestrained because equipment fails and the vehicle's doors fly open.

Other first responders tended to the front seat passenger who was trapped in the vehicle. Fleming Firemen worked to cut through the vehicle's metal to free the student while officers from the Logan County Sheriff's Office spoke to the driver of the vehicle on the other side of the car.

In the end, three teens from the accident were transported to Sterling Regional Medical Center. Two were treated for their injuries, the third later succumbed to theirs. One of the teens required flight for life transportation but the wet, windy weather kept the medical helicopter from landing at the Fleming Football Field; a situation that is real in rural Colorado.

The deceased teen was covered with a blanket along with a single black rose and once the Logan County Coroner arrived on scene, he was placed into a blue plastic bag, loaded into the back of a van and taken to Tennant Funeral Home in Sterling.

The driver was later given field sobriety tests, which he failed, and he was placed in handcuffs and transported to the Logan County Jail. He was later was booked on a number of charges, including vehicular homicide.

The living dead watched from the back of the scene with the Grim Reaper and later were divided and accompanied crash victims to their various designations. At the hospital, victims were treated for their injuries and parents were notified as hospital staff utilized the day's event for training purposes. Same goes for the funeral home as parents of the deceased are notified and asked to make funeral arrangements for their children.

At the jail, the driver was allowed one phone call, searched, gave his fingerprints and booked in the Logan County Jail where he was ushered to the pod with fellow inmates. He later wrote a letter to his parents, as did all program participants, recounting their actions that could have drastically changed the lives of all of those around them.

The active participants in the Every 15 Minute program later checked into a local hotel for the evening where law enforcement organizers debriefed from the day during an over-night retreat. As part of the program, students heard from a local mom who suffered the loss of her son due to a motor vehicle accident north of Sterling on Highway 14 several years ago. Students are kept from contacting their peers, family and friends for the evening, simulating the real effects of distracted or impaired driving.

The next morning, Fleming students, staff and parents gathered for the final assembly, a staged memorial, in the school's auditorium. It's the first time living dead students and crash victims are reunited with their friends and family since the crash event the day before. Fleming students watched a slide show presentation of their program, recapping all that took place the day before. Later, Phillips County District Attorney Travis Sides, Logan County Sheriff Brett Powell and Yuma resident Bev Sanburg spoke to the group.

Sides told students consequences for impaired and distracted driving could be life-long while recounting several cases in his District over the past few years. One involving a young, 24-year-old female who stuck and killed a mother of two. She recently received a 24-year sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Powell shared the story of his son, Zane, who lost his life to a motor vehicle accident in Texas in 2021.

Sanburg has shared the story of her 15-year-old daughter Mallory with the Every 15 Minutes program throughout rural Colorado several times over the past two decades. In 2002, Mallory was involved in a roll-over accident in Yuma which later claimed her life. Mallory lived for 17 days in a Denver hospital fighting for her life after the passenger of the vehicle she was driving left her pinned under the wreckage. Sanburg later fought for legislation to make it a criminal offense for a passenger to leave the scene of an accident without calling for help.

In Colorado, Mallory's Law makes it a misdemeanor for a passenger to leave the scene of an accident without reporting it. Mallory's Law was signed by Governor Owens in 2004.

The morning assembly ended with the reading of letters written by participants of the Every 15 Minutes program. Students wrote letters to their families during the retreat. Many students thanked their loved ones for the small everyday acts of love and service that many times go unnoticed.

The Every 15 Minutes program stresses that the decision to consume alcohol affects more than just the one who drinks along with the dangers of texting and driving. The emotional, heart-wrenching program illustrates to students the potentially dangerous consequences of their use of alcohol and texting while driving, regardless of how casual they believe their use is.

For more information on the Every 15 Minutes program, contact the local Colorado State Patrol office, the Logan County Sheriff's office or visit https://www.everyfifteenminutes.org.