ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609160047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: ANNE BURKE LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
NOTE: Below
WATCHING A CORONER work may not be fun, but it may help reform drunken drivers.
In a brightly lighted autopsy room at the coroner's office, a forensic technician sawed open a man's skull while a knot of people - there under court order - watched through a window.
``They just pulled that guy's face off!'' said Rory Luger, 37, of Van Nuys.
``Aughh,'' said Risa Juarez, 18, of Santa Monica, turning her head away.
Luger and Juarez watched the autopsy as part of an unusual Los Angeles County program that uses shock treatment to teach drunken drivers and other offenders about the deadly consequences of their behavior.
Under the Youthful Drunk Driver Visitation Program, judges sentence people convicted of mostly misdemeanor crimes to an up-close and personal tour of the county coroner's office as a term of their probation.
Despite the gruesome nature of the tour, coroner's officials insist ``we are not there to gross them out.''
``We just want them to see the carnage du jour that we see on a daily basis,'' said Craig Harvey, the coroner's investigation division chief who runs the program.
``It's a very sensory experience - the sights, the sounds, the smells. It makes a very vivid impression on their minds that life is pretty fragile,'' he said.
Tour participants see mangled bodies from car crashes, child-abuse fatalities, gunshot victims, elderly people who died of natural causes - any corpse that happens to be there.
The deceased are among the 20,000 cases that the Los Angeles County coroner handles each year, said coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier.
The program was started in 1989 and is known informally as HAM (Hospital and Morgue). So far, 1,500 people have taken the tour.
Originally, it was for young drunken drivers, but now includes older people and those convicted of reckless driving, weapon charges and other crimes.
Although many counties in California use graphic films and visits to emergency rooms to get their point across, only Los Angeles and Orange counties allow such offenders to look at corpses and autopsies, officials said.
``It just shocks you, especially how they slice you,'' said Rolland Lopez, 18, of Covina, who watched part of an autopsy.
The program has raised questions among those who say it can be unnecessarily disturbing to young people.
But Harvey said participants and their parents give it enthusiastic reviews.
``I thought it was really good. I'm going to tell my friends they should come,'' William Cabrera, 26, of Los Angeles said after taking a tour last week.
No one is forced to look at the bodies, or even take the tour in the first place, Harvey said. The squeamish may instead go to jail or perform community service.
On a recent Wednesday, 13 offenders, most in their teens and 20s, showed up for an 8:30 a.m. tour and class.
``We have about 250 bodies on the floor today,'' Harvey told the group. ``A lot of them didn't plan to be dead. It wasn't on their day planner or anything.''
Harvey led the group to the second floor, where they peered into the crypt room, refrigerated to about 42 degrees. Bodies lay face up on metal slabs, wrapped in heavy plastic, green tags hanging from their toes.
The group also watched a film and slide show about alcohol's grim toll.
``I tell them the program isn't about you, it's about me and my loved ones and friends and family who have to share the road with you,'' Harvey said.
Since there have been no formal studies tracking recidivism among participants, officials said they have no way of knowing how effective the program is.
But there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that it works, advocates say.
``I think it has a substantial impact on them,'' said Municipal Judge Leland Harris, who has used the program for several years. ``They say, `Boy, I'm really going to change my driving habits. I don't want to wind up on a slab with toe tags.'''
Horacio De La Torre, 19, of Van Nuys said his drinking and driving days are over since touring the coroner's office.
``I didn't want to come at first, but I'm thankful I did it,'' De La Torre said.
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