Upper School hosts Save A Life Tour
By Tannika King - Faculty
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for every age from 3-6 and 8-34. Alcohol-related car crashes kill someone every 45 minutes and injure someone every two minutes.
The Save A Life Tour visited Darlington's Upper School April 19 to demonstrate to students the devastating effects of driving under the influence of alcohol. During science class, they ventured to the Huffman Athletic Center’s Van Es Arena to experience a state-of-the-art Drunk Driving Simulator.
All participants began the experience sober as “witnesses” of other drivers’ bad judgment and deteriorating driving skills due to alcohol consumption. Two large screen displays revealed what each driver sees, the face of the driver, a helicopter view of the driver’s vehicle in traffic and an indicator level of the driver’s impairment as it gradually worsens.
New drivers were then selected from the witnessing audience, and were first given an orientation in the virtual environment by driving a high-fidelity desktop simulator with a single display. With a foot on the brake, turn of the ignition, shift into gear and mild acceleration, the drivers were in motion. Audio and visual cues soon began to inform each driver that he or she was under the influence. At each cue, a level of impairment was indicated, and the vehicle’s handling changed. True to life, the drive usually ended in a serious accident.
“It felt uncontrollable," said freshman Mary Lyn Stegall. "If that’s what it feels like to drive drunk, I never want it to happen to me.”
Each driver then graduated to the full immersion simulator with five high-resolution displays and a different driving environment. Every driver was served with a simulated citation as a record of their Driving Under the Influence. The program took about four minutes to complete, and each drive was completely unique.
“After a drunk-driving accident or fatality, it’s not unusual to hear that the driver thought he or she was able to drive, or that he or she had not consumed enough alcohol to be legally drunk, much less impaired,” said Jill Pate, director of personal counseling. “The Drunk Driving Simulator gave our students an opportunity to see and feel what it is like to drive under the influence and how quickly just a small amount of alcohol can result in impaired driving. If we are able to influence just one student to rethink underage drinking and/or drinking and driving, then the program will have been a success.”
For more information on the Save A Life Tour, visit www.savealifetour.com.
