Drunk and Behind the Wheel

Reported July 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Each year, 17,000 people are killed because someone drove while drunk or on drugs, and 1.4 million Americans are arrested for driving under the influence. Some just get a ticket or lose their license. Others end up with more serious consequences. Now a high-tech go-cart may help put the brakes on impaired drivers.

These college students are finding out what it's like to lose control -- what it's like to be a drunk driver. They're testing out a go-cart called SIDNE -- a Simulated Impaired DriviNg Experience.

"We often focus on drunk driving, but you don't have to be drunk to be impaired. You can be buzzed," says Dan Moore, a health educator at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

He uses this simulated technology to show students what could happen -- "Delayed reaction on the brake; delayed reaction on the gas pedal; an exaggerated function of the steering," he tells Ivanhoe.

A remote device controls when the person behind the wheel is sober or totally out of control.

"If I just touched the steering wheel like that ... It just completely turned the other way," student Tara Baldrick-Morrone says. Others were completely out of control.

Moore says when you try to correct when you are in the impaired mode, you basically correct too far, which an impaired person would do. With SIDNE's help, instructors hope drivers make better decisions before getting behind the wheel.

SIDNE is already being used to teach high school students about drunk driving and is also part of local driving schools across the country.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Dan Moore
Health Educator
Florida State University Thagard Student Health Center
(850) 644-8871
dmoore@admin.fsu.edu

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