CAMARILLO : Crash Staged to Show Drunk Driving Results

As hundreds of students looked on, emergency workers from around Ventura County converged on Camarillo High School on Friday, staging a head-on fatal crash to advertise the perils of drinking and driving.

Four students--three in one car and one in the other--portrayed the drunken driver and his victims. During the simulation, firefighters used the Jaws of Life to free trapped victims, and one student was rushed to a local hospital by rescue helicopter.

Students at the school were not told the accident was fake, and Camarillo High School Principal Donald Bathgate said many watched stunned for quite some time before they learned the incident was a simulation. “I saw a couple of kids notice the beer can resting on the hood of the car and they saw the driver put in handcuffs,” he said.

Bathgate said that drinking is winked at by many parents and the students need to know the effects.