Tour hopes to prevent drunk driving
Jack Willems
Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: News
In his junior year of high school, Kwant drank so much at a pre-prom party he blacked out, he said. When he woke up, Kwant was in his car and a friend was asking him for a ride home. On the way home, another driver, who was also intoxicated, ran a yield sign and hit Kwant's car, pushing it into a ditch, he said.
"When I woke up, my shirt was soaked with blood," Kwant said. "They had to take me to the hospital to staple my head back together."
Kwant's friend who was in the car with him was paralyzed from the waste down, Kwant said. The other driver was OK.
The simulator itself was designed to have the same controls of a real car. The simulation begins with the driver having a full range of view, but as the difficulty level increases the driver's peripheral vision narrows. The simulator has 11 difficulty levels, all representing some level of alcohol in the blood stream, Beldyga said. The simulation includes aseat that determines weight and height and guesses your gender in order to determine your tolerance level, Beldyga said. Meanwhile, either Beldyga or Kwant would yell instructions to distract the driver.
"Usually, I'm the back-seat driver," Kwant said.
Jared Para, a junior Kinesiology major from West Memphis, tried the simulation and found it to be hard, he said. The simulation will discourage the people who try it from driving while intoxicated, but not the people who did not try it, Para said.
"I learned not to drink and drive because it is hard to do," he said.
Colby McKinney, another junior kinesiology major from DeQueen, thought the simulation was very realistic, she said. She said she did well at first, but she started swerving after she overcorrected for one turn and could never get back on track.
McKinney also said she enjoyed Beldyga's presentation.
"It was better than I thought because he was able to relate to us through his own personal story about his fiancée dying," she said.
"When I woke up, my shirt was soaked with blood," Kwant said. "They had to take me to the hospital to staple my head back together."
Kwant's friend who was in the car with him was paralyzed from the waste down, Kwant said. The other driver was OK.
The simulator itself was designed to have the same controls of a real car. The simulation begins with the driver having a full range of view, but as the difficulty level increases the driver's peripheral vision narrows. The simulator has 11 difficulty levels, all representing some level of alcohol in the blood stream, Beldyga said. The simulation includes aseat that determines weight and height and guesses your gender in order to determine your tolerance level, Beldyga said. Meanwhile, either Beldyga or Kwant would yell instructions to distract the driver.
"Usually, I'm the back-seat driver," Kwant said.
Jared Para, a junior Kinesiology major from West Memphis, tried the simulation and found it to be hard, he said. The simulation will discourage the people who try it from driving while intoxicated, but not the people who did not try it, Para said.
"I learned not to drink and drive because it is hard to do," he said.
Colby McKinney, another junior kinesiology major from DeQueen, thought the simulation was very realistic, she said. She said she did well at first, but she started swerving after she overcorrected for one turn and could never get back on track.
McKinney also said she enjoyed Beldyga's presentation.
"It was better than I thought because he was able to relate to us through his own personal story about his fiancée dying," she said.
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