News

Goggles produce drunken effects

California Highway Patrol's Baldwin Park Division hosted a drunk driving prevention presentation Tuesday in Sneaky Park at 3:30 p.m. Fatal vision goggles were used to simulate vision perception between .15 and .16 Blood Alcohol Content. Senior Sergio Alfaro tries out the tricycle race course wearing the special goggles. / photo by Isela Peña
California Highway Patrol’s Baldwin Park Division hosted a drunk driving prevention presentation Tuesday in Sneaky Park at 3:30 p.m. Fatal vision goggles were used to simulate vision perception between .15 and .16 Blood Alcohol Content. Senior Sergio Alfaro tries out the tricycle race course wearing the special goggles. / photo by Isela Peña

by Araceli Esparza
Editorial Director

An estimated 40 members from the University of La Verne community attended a drunk driving presentation in Sneaky Park on Tuesday afternoon. The event was presented by ULV’s Substance Abuse Education Committee and officers from the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Baldwin Park division.

Officers Jon Samson, Matt Lentz and John Escobedo informed the audience about routine drunk driving incidents and tragedies. Through statistics and personal experiences, each CHP representative gave insight to some of the effects of driving under the influence of alcohol.

“In three months, the entire ULV population would be wiped out,” said Samson, applying the University’s approximate 1,100 undergraduate population to current drunk driving tragedies.

He said, “Roughly, 5,000 people [nationwide] are killed by DUI (driving under the influence) drivers every year.”

According to data from the CHP, an individual’s blood alcohol content (BAC) is measured by his or her level of intoxication. The BAC “varies according to the amount of alcohol consumed as well as the weight, sex and other physical factors” of the individual. The legal BAC level for any person age 21 or older is 0.08, while that of anyone under the age of 21 is 0.00.

At Tuesday’s presentation, CHP officers also introduced a pair of fatal vision goggles; the goggles simulate to users the feeling of being intoxicated between BAC level of 0.15 or 0.16. The product was created by the Innocorp Company last year and has been ordered by the state’s patrol to have one pair of goggles available to each CHP area division.

“We go to high schools, we go to colleges … we’ll even go to elementary schools, and we’ll do DUI presentations,” said Escobedo. “We’ll use the goggles to simulate being under the influence.”

“It’s better than [a] controlled drinking thing, where we get so many people to drink and try to alcohol by drinking,” he said. “With the goggles, we can do that, and it’s a lot easier.”

Those who have tested the goggles themselves admit the experience has had a “sobering effect,”said Escobedo.

“I had a preconceived notion that I was still going to be able to function properly,” said John Hallman, head swimming coach. “I thought I could do everything, but the minute you try to do any kind of coordination activity, your whole perception and balance is skewed.”

The officers agreed that it is easy to suspect a drunk driver through his or her driving tactics.

Primarily, the intoxicated driver will swerve on the road. Some drivers will accelerate and decelerate speeds sporadically, while others will drive in the wrong direction on a road or freeway. Samson said he has seen an intoxicated driver passed out behind the wheel at a traffic light.

Under any circumstances, the procedure for pulling a drunk driver over is a step-by-step process. First, the officer(s) will observe a driver, then proceed to make a traffic stop if there is a problem. The officer will talk to the driver, look for objective symptoms of intoxication, such as slurred speech, and conduct a sobriety test. If it is concluded that the driver was, in fact, driving under the influence of alcohol, he or she will be arrested for charges to be made.

Regardless of how many alcoholic beverages an individual has consumed, the three officers agreed that the individual will admit to having only “two beers.” The majority of the time, that individual has actually had much more than that amount.

Through the use of the simulation goggles, CHP officers hope to promote the awareness of a subject which is a large concern in today’s society.

“We can stand up here and we can preach, ‘Don’t drink, don’t drink, don’t drink,” said Escobedo. “Everybody’s heard it and they know that it’s [the message] no longer socially accepted in society anymore.”

“The goggles are a good tool to use in the sense of educating the public on the dangers of drunk driving,” said Hallman.

“If a person can take their eyes off of themself, and put their eyes on other people that they could possibly affect,” said Escobedo. “I think that would cut down the collision statistics dramatically.”

Hallman said he is “glad the legal limit is 0.08,” but wishes it would be lower.

“I was trying to prove to myself that there is no difference between [wearing] the goggles and no goggles,” he said, “but that is completely impossible.”

Araceli Esparza, Editorial Assistant
Araceli Esparza
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