News Fukuoka driving school lets participants try drunk driving

[thomas]

A driving school in Fukuoka let participants in a seminar experience the effects of intoxication while driving a vehicle. The question was, why do drunk drivers dare to get behind the wheel?

During the session, Hyelim Ha, 26, a Mainichi Shimbun reporter, drank and drove on a trial basis while colleague Rokuhei Sato, 29, traveled in the same vehicle to report on the boozed driving -- an experience exposing the danger of overconfidence. [...] Ha then had a 350-milliliter can of beer, a cup each of "umeshu" plum liquor and "shochu" distilled spirit, both diluted with water, over the course of roughly an hour. A breathalyzer test detected 0.30 milligrams of alcohol per liter of breath, twice the DUI threshold of 0.15 mg. A red-faced Ha said, "My hands are cold and my heart's beating fast," yet added, "I'm conscious and I feel like I can drive." [...] Soon after Ha started the car, however, fellow reporter Sato noticed anomalies. The now drunken driver repeatedly accelerated and slowed down along straight lines and curves in the early section of the course when there was no need to do so, resulting in Sato lurching back and forth every time. While Ha cleared the slalom without hitting any obstacles, vice school head Kubota stopped the driver when she was about to enter the S-curve.

The head of the driving school, Kubota Shijiro, noted the effects of drinking, saying, "Even though it slows the skills people need for driving, such as cognitive capacity, judgement and vehicle manoeuvring ability, the driver assumes they are driving safely -- that's the danger of drunken driving."

Fukuoka driving school lets participants try drunk driving to expose dangers - The Mainichi

CHIKUSHINO, Fukuoka -- About 80% of people arrested on suspicion of or otherwise accused of drunken driving showed notably high concentrations of alco

mainichi.jp

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Bought back a memory. The local sheriff department used golf carts and glasses that distort like a drunk would see. The "drivers" were Explorer Boy Scouts who were being shown the dangers of driving drunk. One of the boys got carried away and floored the cart right into a cement post and totaled the golf cart they had borrowed from a local golf course. The only injury was to his dad's ego , who was one of the sheriffs putting on the demo.