In 2018, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that 20.5 million Americans ages 16 and up reported driving under the influence of alcohol. In response to the grim realities of drunk driving, 1,600,000 California high school students have witnessed a simulated traffic collision complete with fake blood, car alarms and totaled cars. 

“They’re mic’d up and you can hear them crying and screaming,” said Talia Feder, a student witness to San Ramon Valley High School’s Every 15 Minutes program, in an interview with The Urban Legend.

Emergency medical services (EMS), helicopters, coroners, firefighters, ambulances and police officers tend to student participants’ fictitious injuries. Police officers will then investigate, arrest and book the student acting as the drunk driver, as well as reciting memorial speeches written by the actors’ parents.

This is the Every 15 Minutes program. Every 15 Minutes uses a scare tactic method aiming to teach teenagers the dangers of drunk driving. The program was first introduced to California high schools by the Chico Police Department in 1995, a response to the alarmingly high death tolls caused by young drunk drivers. 

“[Every 15 Minutes’] volunteers [fabricate] … a real-life experience so that it can educate and create awareness among teenagers about the dangers of drinking and drunk driving and the effects that it has on the community,” said Liz Humphers, an Every 15 Minutes program coordinator for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in an interview with The Urban Legend. 

According to Humphers, the Every 15 Minutes program has received 95 grant applications across California for the 2023-2024 school year.

“Since the CHP began administering the program in October 2000, more than 2,400 Every 15 Minutes programs have been implemented in high schools throughout California, impacting over 1,600,000 students,” said Humphers.

Although the program is often deemed as surpassing necessary measures of substance education, its effect on California school communities is undeniable. Some question whether addressing drunk driving with programs that emphasize shock is as effective as the more comprehensive approaches, which involve education, community engagement and legal interventions.

Humphers said, “[Every 15 Minutes] brings the whole community together, which is kind of what the point of the program is. It’s dramatic and it presents a realistic demonstration of the effects that [drunk driving] has on the entire community, including students [and] families.”

Natalie Shepherd, a student actor in San Ramon Valley High School’s Every 15 Minutes program said in an interview with The Urban Legend, “They should’ve given more of a warning, because multiple people had to leave due to how traumatic it was. Many kids were scared from it and couldn’t return to class or had mental breakdowns.”

“It felt like [the actors] were cosplaying death. I think the assembly where the actual victims of drunk driving or whose family had died from it was more effective for us,” said Feder.

“Everything [involving acting in the program] was so top secret. The emails were labeled with ‘top secret email, no one else can see this,’” said Shepherd.

“[Parents] attend a … meeting and they discuss their feelings about the day as well as they write goodbye letters to their child,” said Humphers.

Shepherd said, “At some point during the day, the chaplain and a police officer would show up to your house and basically give … a death announcement to the parents.”

The next morning, a school-wide mock funeral is held for the student actors who died in the drunk driving accident. “It was fake, but it felt real,” said Shepherd.

Additionally, the harshness of scare tactics can create a stigma around seeking help when someone is struggling with substance abuse. “Scare tactics could … definitely affect high school students’ comfortability with going and getting help,” said Zareen Abraham ‘25, member of the Health Initiative for Peer Education (HIPE).

“[Scare tactics are] basically [saying], ‘Just don’t drink at whatever cost.’ It’s not very centered around education about alcohol, which in my opinion is more effective,” said Abraham.

For this reason, Health Education Teacher and Faculty Advisor for HIPE, Jenn Epstein, prefers fact-based education rather than scare tactics like Every 15 Minutes.

“One thing that I learned quickly when I started [teaching] at Urban is that students … want truth and they want facts and they want information,” said Epstein.

Legislation can also be an effective way to reduce drunk driving fatalities. According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) website, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980 by a group of mothers whose children had died in drunk driving accidents. According to their website, “Kids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash.” 

MADD is widely credited for passing the federal legislation that established the national legal drinking age as 21 in 1984. Since this legislation was implemented, alcohol-related deaths have decreased from 22 to 10 in every 100,000 people under the age of 21 per year. The number of high school students who drink dropped from 69.7% to 52.7% in the 15 years following the law’s implementation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that since 1997, these laws have saved 17,359 lives.

Despite a decrease in high school aged drinkers, drunk driving remains an issue. Epstein said, “In theory, getting your license [at age 16] and not being able to drink for five years is a great plan, right? Get all that experience and then, hopefully, you’re old enough to make that decision. Theoretically — but that’s not what everybody follows.”

Despite the trauma it can cause and the criticism this approach has received, there are undeniable benefits. A 2006 survey conducted by NSDUH assessed subjects after completing a scare tactic program for drunk driving, similar to Every 15 Minutes. This revealed a significant increase in refusal to drink and drive from an initial 13% to, after completing a scare tactic program, a 33% refusal rate from the control group.

While Every 15 Minutes may not solve America’s drunk driving crisis, some still think it has a lot to offer. Shepherd said, “[Every 15 Minutes] truly does make a person realize how valuable life is and how fast that can be taken away.”