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Since its inception in 2002, presentations have continued year round. From 2002 to 2008, “A Life Interrupted” has been presented over 200 times to more than 100,000 attendees at local junior high, all high schools in the county, businesses and various civic and youth groups. By the end of 2008 the program will have been presented more than 300 times and have reached more than 150,000 people in our community.
In 2005 the mothers of two young men killed by drunk drivers formed the 501(c)(3)non-profit organization “A Life Interrupted” to support the efforts of the program and ensure this program continues to be active and available in our community.
In August 2008 the non-profit organization along with the Bakersfield Police Department dedicated a Mobile DUI Crash Exhibit to the community. The Exhibit includes a dedicated truck and 30 ft. glass-sided trailer featuring a wrecked vehicle driven by a local young woman who died as the result of an alcohol or drug related crash. The truck and trailer is available to schools, businesses, and numerous community and non-profit events. In addition to the actual wrecked vehicle, the trailer includes television screens playing a video that tells the story of the vehicle as well as the story of other victims, their families and public service announcements. This highly visual display serves as a sobering reminder to our youth of the devastating effects of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The “crash trailer” adds an additional visual tool for our community that drives home our message.
In the time period from 2002 to 2005 the number of drivers age 20 and under involved in alcohol related collisions in the Bakersfield Police Department jurisdiction dropped by 35%. This decrease did not happen immediately. We saw the most significant improvement from 2004 to 2005 where these types of injuries dropped by 50%. In 2007 Bakersfield experienced the death of 1 teen as a result of a collision, a far cry from the 12 killed in 2002. In an 18-month period during 2007 and 2008 there were no teen deaths related to auto crashes in Bakersfield.
By continuing to focus our efforts to our target audience, repeating our message and growing this program to actively involve young drivers, their parents, schools and businesses, we will accomplish our goal of decreasing vehicle collisions through responsible driving practices and saving the lives of young people in our community.
Young drivers, parents and community members learn how these crashes happen and how they can be prevented. Drivers who have been arrested for driving under the influence or who have caused crashes involving irresponsible actions learn first hand the consequences for their actions. Each year our program audience grows.
The combination of law enforcement expertise, powerful photographs, compelling 911 tapes and the personalization of the victims with stories and memories shared by their families has made “A Life Interrupted” an effective and sustaining deterrent to unsafe driving practices in our community.
With the assistance of the local media and the Kern High School District “A Life Interrupted” has been presented in every local high school in the county.
In addition to the live presentation we also produce public service announcements promoting safe driving, involve high school students to keep safe driving behaviors top of mind, sponsor safe driving poster contests and engage our community through community and civic events.
Our message is, “Be Responsible for Your Actions.”
Background
Senior Officer Don Cegielski, as part of his duties in the Traffic Division of the Bakersfield Police Department, was assigned to investigate fatal traffic collisions. On a cold winter night in 2002 he was dispatched to southwest Bakersfield to investigate one such collision. This collision involved a young male driver who was traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour when he rear ended a semi truck and trailer. As a result of the collision the right rear passenger in the vehicle suffered fatal injuries. The driver was determined to be driving while under the influence and was arrested.
During the investigation it was determined that the occupants of the vehicle were all teenage boys. Prior to the collision these young men had been at the driver’s house where they were drinking alcoholic beverages. The three young men got into the car and were taking one of the passengers home when the collision occurred.
This unfortunate collision was one of several that occurred that year in the Bakersfield area involving teen drivers. By the end of the year twelve local teens lost their lives due to motor vehicle collisions within the metropolitan area of Bakersfield.
These tragic events raised a couple questions:
Sadly, Driver’s Education had been removed from the public schools due to cost and liability issues. Teen drivers were required to attend privately operated driving schools to learn how to drive. The education of our teens, with regard to personal responsibility and wise choices had been placed on the “back burner” due to cost.
Bakersfield was also beginning to see our first “Cool Parent” parties in the area. These are teen parties sponsored by parents who provide the alcohol.
Rather than continuing the status quo and watch more and more teens die in pointless accidents, The Bakersfield Police Department set out to create a venue to better educate our local teen drivers. Due to the difficulty in providing additional programming in local high schools the officers knew their program had to be compact. Being keenly aware that in order to capture the attention of teens, a high impact intense program was needed, and as a result, “A Life Interrupted” was born.
The idea behind “A Life Interrupted” was to use actual photographs from fatal collisions which occurred in the Bakersfield area. Officers from the California Highway Patrol and Officer Cegielski reviewed potential collisions looking for those involving teens that had died as a result of traffic collisions. The collisions did not necessarily involve driving under the influence; they also involved poor choices while in the act of driving. The officers then took the difficult step of approaching the families to get permission to talk about their children and to use photos of the child from before the collision. Parents and family members have supported A Life Interrupted from the very first presentation. A parent of a young person tragically killed in a crash sharing their personal journey is part of each program.
[Left to Right] Bill Rector, Bakersfield Police Chief; Kevin McCarthy, US Congressman; Carla Pearson, Officer Rex Davenport, Nancy Chaffin, Tina Antak, and Officer Danny Wells.
