Stark, Somber Message Delivered at Tam High Today

The community will experience tragedy today, and while it won’t be real, its consequences will be stark.

For the next two days, Tam plays host to Every 15 Minutes, a two-day program designed to challenge high school students to think about drinking and driving, personal safety, and making responsible decisions, particularly how their decisions impact their family and friends.

The program kicks off this morning with the staging of a tragic accident in the southbound lanes of Miller Ave. outside Tam. Traffic in both southbound lanes of Miller Ave. will be blocked off starting at 8 a.m., with traffic being diverted from southbound Miller to northbound Camino Alto and from southbound Camino Alto to northbound Miller. Northbound Miller traffic will not be impacted, according to Mill Valley Police.

Law enforcement authorities from a host of local and regional agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Mill Valley Police Department, Mill Valley Fire Department, Tiburon Police and Twin Cities Police, will be called to the scene at 10:40 a.m.

Students will be brought out to a large section of bleachers along Miller to witness the first responders’ arrival and handling of the accident. Rescue workers will treat and transport the “injured” to Marin General Hospital, the Coroner’s office will transport a deceased victim, and all the parents of the students in the crash will be notified.

“It’s designed to wake people up,” said Mill Valley Police Sgt. Steve Heisinger.

Throughout the day, the “Grim Reaper” will pull a student from class every 15 minutes, the duration of time event organizers say represents the program’s premise that a person dies every 15 minutes from an alcohol-related accident. A police officer enters the class of each person pulled and will read that student’s obituary.

The student will be made up return to class as one of he “living dead,” but will not participate or speak for the rest of the day.

At the accident scene, police will investigate, arrest and book the driver, who will be charged with drunk driving. The aftermath of the crash will continue at the

hospital and the Marin County Jail. Students will be filming much of the day’s events “so that the entire student body can understandAll the off-campus portions of the day are filmed so that the entire student body can understand the impact of the crash,” according to Ilana Friedman, a parent volunteer at Tam for the event.

The program’s second day centers on a school assembly that includes a presentation of

the video shot the day before, sentencing of the drunk driver, a speaker who has had a personal experience with drunk driving, and the sharing of letters prepared by participating students and their parents.

“The goal of these poignant and heart wrenching events is to point out to students that the potential effect of drinking or texting and driving are broad and that the ripple effect on family, fellow students and the community at large is both devastating and long lasting,” Friedman said.

Check back here at Mill Valley Patch Wednesday morning for the video shot by Tam students and more video coverage on Thursday of the assembly.