`EVERY 15 MINUTES' STUDENTS' PROGRAM SENDS SOBERING MESSAGE.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Two Palmdale High School students lay motionless in the street, their faces and bodies covered by yellow tarps.

Fire crews went through the motions of reviving another student lying outside the two smashed cars. Another student was carried into a waiting ambulance, while a fifth was being handcuffed.

More than 300 Palmdale High School seniors looked on during the mock crash staged on 20th Street East as part of an anti-drunk driving program called ``Every 15 Minutes,'' a culmination of two students' senior project.

``If just one person learns from this, then it's worth it,'' said Stephanie VanWert, 17, who put the program together with Brandon Smith, 18.

``As a teen-ager, you have this air of invincibility,'' Smith added. ``You always think: It can't happen to me, it can't happen to me. We hope that we can make everyone here aware of what could happen if they drink and drive. This is all very real.''

The program is held annually just before graduation to raise awareness of the seriousness of drunk driving.

Since the program was first put on full scale in the Antelope Valley three years ago, there have been no drunk driving-related deaths of high school students during graduation nights, officials say.

To drive home the meaning behind the name - that four American teen- agers die every hour in alcohol-related crashes - every 15 minutes a student is pulled out of class by a school staffer dressed as the Grim Reaper. A deputy is then sent into the classroom to tell the students their classmate died senselessly in an alcohol-related crash. Someone will then read an obituary of the teen to the class.

The ``dead'' students are then placed in black T-shirts bearing the program name and their faces are painted white.

The teens are kept away from friends and family the remainder of the day, spending the night in hotel rooms.

The mock crash was staged after lunch. The two people designated to play the roles of those killed at the scene are actually transported by the coroner while the ``injured'' are taken to Antelope Valley Hospital via ambulance.

Even parents are involved. Parents of the mock crash ``victims'' are brought to the hospital. Even though they are notified beforehand of the program and the role their teen will play, many find it hard to deal with.

The teen portraying the driver is arrested, booked and placed in a holding cell at the Lancaster sheriff's station jail.

``It was pretty serious, pretty real,'' said Alma Felix, 16. ``I don't drink but I've been in cars where the person has drank. It makes you think twice. It gave us chills.''

Today, the senior class will gather in the Palmdale High gym to watch a video of the scenario from beginning to end, including the arrest, what went on at the hospital and the notification of parents.

The students who participated will then take turns reading to the class the letters they wrote the previous night at the hotel.

Smith and VanWert, both students in the medical magnet program at Palmdale High, decided last year that they wanted to put on this week's campaign.

In late October, the pair began meeting with high school board, Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol, American Medical Response ambulance service and Los Angeles County Fire Department officials as well as teachers and parents.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) County firefighters remove a car-crash ``victim'' during an anti-drunk driving assembly Thursday at Palmdale High School.

(2 -- color) A Palmdale High student dressed as the Grim Reaper comes to collect the ``dead'' from a mock crash.

(3) Dressed in black with white face paint, teens demonstrate the toll taken by drunk drivers.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer