An Emotional Journey: Staged, Real-Life Crashes Bring Home Impact of DUIs for SLHS Students

Marcella Gomez was only 11 when her family's van was broadsided by a drunk driver in May, 2001. The family was returning to their Antioch home after a vacation at Disneyland. They had fewer than 15 miles still to go. Gomez's parents were killed in the collision, while she and her twin sister, brother and grandmother were badly injured.

On Friday, Gomez—now in college—talked about her experiences with loss and recovery at a assembly closing out the school's "Every 15 Minutes" drunk driving prevention program. 

The program included a hyper-realistic Thursday of a drunk driving crash, complete with a helicopter, ambulances and SLHS students playing the driver and victims. But it was Friday's assembly that aimed to pack the real emotional punch.

Gomez said she sustained severe injuries and was in a coma for four months. Once she awoke, she had to relearn just about everything, including how to walk and talk. Her only memories of her parents were contained in photographs and stories from relatives.

Gomez said throughout her recovery she has been looked at as "different" but her family gives her strength.

"I know I'm not a superhero and I can't take back things that have been done, but I'm a survivor," she said.

"We are lucky to have choices. Just make the right ones," she told students at the assembly. "My life is forever changed now due to one guy's choice."

Wes Morgan, a veteran traffic officer with the Livermore Police Department, also spoke to the students. He described the day decades ago that he says began his "passion"  to get as many drunk drivers off the road as he could.

Then only 21 years old, Morgan received a call around 3 a.m. about a crash on Livermore Road. At first, no one could find the accident, but when he did, he found a young man lying, bloodied, next to his motorcycle. The man had been drinking, Morgan said.

As Morgan waited for paramedics to arrive, he saw a 15-year-old girl lying on the side of the road. He tried to administer CPR, but her ribs were broken and her mouth began to fill with blood.

She died, and Morgan was given the task of going to her home to break the news to her father.

"There I was, a young rookie cop with blood on his shirt and tears in his eyes," Morgan said. He told the man "Sir, I couldn't save her, but I promise you I'll work as hard as I can and as long as I can to prevent drunk driving."

After Morgan's talk, a video about Thursday's staged crash was played for the audience of juniors, seniors and their teachers.

Included in the video are details leading up to the collision, the crash scene that was played out on campus for students, and scenes of trauma doctors treating the victims and the driver getting booked into jail and sentenced in a courtroom.

Actors in the collision were students Jenna Hewitt, Penny Beachum, Kyrian "Obi" Obidiegwu and Jamie Turrentine from one car and  Jeff Engler, Jose Contreras and Vanessa Vinoya in the other. Student Cambria Square played the 911 caller.

Beachum, who lay face down on the hood of the car after the staged crash, was pronounced dead by Alameda County coroner's office staff, while three others were taken to emergency rooms. One—football player Obidiegwu, in keeping with the Every 15 Minutes formula of putting student athletes in "starring" roles—was transported by helicopter.

The video incorporated other elements to make it seem more authentic: interviews, actual home video footage of the student actors, and inclusion of the students' parents, who reacted to the staged tragedy in much the same way one might imagine them doing in real life.

After the video was screened, some participants read letters to their loved ones. They included students Karyn Bishop and Jeff Engler and student Jenna Hewitt's mother, Carla Johnson Hewitt.

San Leandro High Principal Linda Granger closed the assembly by coming back to the theme of making responsible choices. 

Should they ever find themselves in need of a ride home after drinking, Granger urged them to call their parents.

"They will be grateful that you followed one bad decision with a good one," she said.