SCV'S ANTI-DRUNK DRIVING DISPLAY A CRASHING SUCCESS SMASHED VEHICLE SERVES AS GRIM REMINDER OF DANGERS.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Curious car dealers stood silently as a video of Saugus High's ``Every 15 Minutes'' program played on a television monitor. But their eyes weren't on the video screen. They were looking at a crumpled white Chevrolet sport utility vehicle behind the monitor in a trailer at the Valencia Country Club.

The car on display is from Anaheim. The axles are broken, the metal rusted where paint was violently ripped away and the normally sleek panels all horribly twisted. It is a silent reminder that no one walked away from this car after its final moment.

The Chevy was the first car hit when the driver of a dump truck under the influence of methamphetamine ran a red light on Imperial Highway. Pushed along by the momentum of the dump truck, its trailer and the front-loading earthmover it was carrying, it became part of a 12-car pileup that left its driver, a 52-year-old-man with a wife and grown children, dead.

The display made its debut Thursday for the members of the Santa Clarita Auto Dealers, which provided the $16,000 for the trailer.

``If we can save one life or get kids to think about driving safely, it's money well spent,'' said Don Fleming, president of the dealers association.

``This is very effective,'' said Bill McClendon, a Lexus dealer. ``It gives a dose of reality to young people in the community.''

Families of the deceased donate vehicles to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers in the hopes that the lessons of driving dangerously carry on.

``I've been standing next to victims' parents when people are looking at the cars,'' said Tony Convine, who has helped create and transports the six trailers for the program throughout Southern California. ``The people come up and comment on how the car is damaged and how hard it got hit. One of the mothers stepped forward and asked someone if they thought about the victims. They couldn't say anything. When I'm on the freeway, I can't ever change lanes because people just pull up next to me and stare.''

The trailer, which includes two video monitors, lights, speakers and accident scene photographs, will travel to various Santa Clarita locations throughout the next year. Sheriff's Deputy Mike Shapiro, who works in traffic at the Santa Clarita station, escorted the display to College of the Canyons, so students of Canyon and Valencia High Schools can view it before and after the football game. It will remain at college until Saturday, when it will move to the Honda dealership on Creekside Road, and then to the sheriff's station for the Haunted Jailhouse.

Shapiro got the idea to get a trailer for the Santa Clarita Valley when he arranged for members of the Orange County MADD to bring theirs to last year's Haunted Jailhouse.

``I usually put together the DUI trailer display, but we don't get a lot of people,'' Shapiro explained. ``This trailer had people two or three deep in a circle around it all day long. I can't tell you what a hit it was. That's when I knew it was something we had to have.

``There was an ad in the paper about how buying cars in the Santa Clarita Valley was helping the city purchase patrol cars,'' he continued. ``So I went to Don and said, put your money where your mouth is, and they agreed to underwrite the project.''

``It would be a crime if this sat in the sheriff's parking lot,'' said Santa Clarita Councilman Frank Ferry, who also serves as the vice principal at Saugus High School. ``It's going to visit every high school campus, shopping mall, expo, all city events. There is no event where we can't use this to educate people.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Local auto dealers, reflected in glass, on Thursday look at a new $16,000 mobile display aimed at discouraging drinking and driving. The dealers put up the money for the vehicle.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer