The recent enrichment day for Massabesic High School students included a unique opportunity that ought to become available to all motorists: A chance to experience the effects of impaired driving in a safe environment.
Students at MHS participated last week in driving a golf cart while wearing “drunk goggles” and then while texting on a cell phone. The students drove the carts at about five miles per hour through a course of orange traffic cones, which were soon knocked down as the drivers struggled with depth perception and distortion of time and distance.
The youth who participated quickly learned that driving while impaired or distracted can be deadly, as they inadvertently drove into the traffic cones. Many of them were surprised to find that they fared no better while texting than they did with the drunk goggles, which simulate intoxication.
That was the precise point that School Resource Deputy Jason Solomon was hoping to convey to the youth. The event was hosted by the York County Sheriff’s Office, which provided the equipment. Solomon said he believes that today’s young people are desensitized by media overload, so the activity was meant to show them the reality of operating under the influence.
As part of the demonstration, students also got to see how paramedics extract a person from a crashed vehicle.
These programs are common at high schools, with Thornton Academy hosting the texting golf cart course a couple years ago, and they send a powerful message: Anything that takes your eyes and attention off the road can be deadly dangerous. This is evidenced by the multitude of avoidable crashes that happen every day.
More than 16,000 people were killed nationwide in alcohol-related crashes in 2005, according to the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety.
Drunk driving used to be much more commonplace before the government and various non-profit organizations began campaigns against it during the past few decades. However, despite the multiple public service announcements about choosing a designated driver and avoiding “drinking and driving,” it still seems that many people aren’t getting the message.
In 2006, in Maine alone, 10,569 people were arrested for operating under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
According to the Bureau of Highway Safety website, it wasn’t until 1987 that drivers were prohibited from drinking while driving, and significantly fewer people have died from alcohol-related crashes since then.
It was 1995 when Maine instituted a “zero tolerance” law for drivers under the age of 21, allowing them a blood alcohol level of zero. That limit had been .02 since 1983, which was just two years before the drinking age was changed from 20 to 21.
Now motorists face a new danger, however: Technology. As the MHS students found out, a cell phone is no safer than a six-pack when it comes to driving, and car manufacturers are only making matters worse with all the new gadgetry in our vehicles.
Hands-on demonstrations such as the golf cart course give drivers a real sense of what it means to get behind the wheel of a vehicle when they’re incapable of properly controlling it.
Perhaps the golf cart course ought to be a requirement of getting a license and a license renewal for all drivers. It seems to be an effective way of conveying the true dangers of driving while impaired. Some people only learn through experience, so if they can experience it themselves in a safe environment, maybe they would think twice before driving impaired in the real world ”“ and save a life.
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Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via e-mail at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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