Students drive under the influence of beer goggles

Students, piloting an Alcohol Law Enforcement golf cart, swerved through the Brickyard Wednesday while under the influence - of beer goggles.

A joint effort by ALE, the Student Judicial Board and health promotion brought the "Keys to Life" golf cart to campus in an effort to raise students' awareness of the problems that alcohol can cause.

Drivers first wove through a traffic cone course under normal vision and then re-drove the course wearing a pair of goggles that simulate a person's vision at about 0.1 percent blood alcohol concentration.

Chris Doerner, junior in environmental technology, said he noticed an immense difference while attempting the course with the goggles after making a perfect run without them.

"You can't see anything - you have double or triple vision," Doerner said. "It should definitely make people think twice because in a real scenario those cones could be real people." Although driving the alcohol cart teaches the driver an important lesson about the danger of drinking and driving, it is still important to realize that alcohol impairs more than just a person's vision, according to Stephanie Sobol, associate director of health promotion. "It's not the real experience because your mind is clear, whereas under the influence of alcohol you move and think slower," Sobol said.

The judicial board decided to become part of the event in an effort to prevent the large number of alcohol violations the board sees students commit each semester, and to make students aware of the consequences of these violations, according to Lee Jackson, a senior in material science and engineering and program coordinator with Chris Gilmore, a senior in political science.

The judicial board's punishment for driving under the influence, Jackson said, is a semester suspension. "Most cases we see deal with drunk driving," Jackson, a member of the judicial board, said. "There has always been a heavy number of alcohol violations."

According to ALE Agent Josh Batten, law enforcement in North Carolina has been making stronger efforts to apply the zero tolerance policy of drinking and driving and underage drinking, but at the same time, the statistics in these areas have begun to level off. ALE has been using the golf cart to educate students for the past five years, he said.

"We want to let students see how dangerous [drinking and driving] is whether you're 18 or 30," Batten said. The alcohol cart was only a recent addition to "The BIG Event," the name that health promotion and the Campus Community Coalition gave to their showing of the N.C. State vs. UNC-Chapel Hill basketball game in Reynolds Coliseum. Despite the fact this is the tenth year of the event, some students who attend overlook the fact that it is alcohol-free, Chris Austin, assistant director of health promotion, said.

"It's a great event that provides a safe place for students to watch the game and a lot of students are repeat customers," Austin said.