Helicopter, sirens at Piner High School due to anti-DUI program

A CHP helicopter that landed at Piner High School Wednesday morning and emergency sirens blaring in west Santa Rosa aren’t a real emergency but part of a lesson for teens on the perils of drunken driving.

Santa Rosa police issued an alert about the activity at the Fulton Road school to avoid public concern. The program was expected to continue into Thursday.

The program, known as Every 15 Minutes, includes a fake but realistic-looking crash scene with injuries and fatalities set up for high school students to view as part of a two-day event denouncing driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The program is held at multiple high schools each year. Its name stems from early 1990s statistics that there was a fatal DUI crash every 15 minutes somewhere in the country. More recent statistics show such fatal crashes happen nationwide every 30 minutes - an improvement attributed to more aggressive efforts to combat DUI driving - but still a critical issue, police said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.