UNDER THE INFLUENCE

after having several alcoholic drinks there are at least twenty eight thousand deaths on this country's roads and highways that are alcohol-related and another two million Americans are injured the amount of property damage is astronomical 50% of all the traffic deaths last year involve people who were driving after drinking the car has become a deadlier weapon than the gun occasionally I Drive after I've been drinking and if you really want to know the truth I think I Drive better after I've had a few drinks and there are a lot of other people who think they drive better after drinking you don't feel any difference between driving sober and driving under the influence is that what you're saying you feel like you still have all of these he intuitiveness that you'd have when you were sober do you consider that you could be a reasonably safe driver on the streets with six drinks yes reasonably safe yet I think I'll be less inhibited I'll probably do better tell us about Laurie Claxton I'm with extrusion where do you live are they Santa Monica my name is teri lauki but I prefer being called tree Lackey my name is salvo army checker and I'm 23 years old my name is William armies I'm a judge in the Municipal Court they call me Bill I'm Alma Johnston I'm 30 I am currently a housewife my name is Jim northern one of the main reasons that I'm here is because I want to see how a point 1o affects my driving I want to get some experience you know because they caught me for drunk like one time so I said might as well go over there and try to learn something you know and it sounded very interesting and I thought it would be very enlightening to find out what it felt like to to perform under the influence of alcohol and also to find out what it feels like to be at point one open to choose the test subjects for the experiment more than 500 questionnaires were set out to a representative sample of the people who live in Los Angeles County more than 100 of those who responded were invited to take part in a preliminary screening during the screening the subjects were tested before and after drinking on problems that required manual dexterity and coordination including the field sobriety test currently used by law enforcement officers throughout the country based on the results of the preliminary screening the 30 people who exhibited the greatest resistance to alcohol were invited to take part in the driving phase of the experiment so the people who'll be doing the driving are the ones who proved they could hold their booze the best Police Department was very fair and setting this up they haven't tried to load it at all they gave us over 8 hours of very intensive training on each of the tests that will be put through to bring our proficiency on the test to the highest point so I feel that they have a very accurate figure as to the proficiency level of each of the drivers and we learned a lot here the officers are telling us how its to be done and some things I didn't even know I've been driving for over 30 years I think that the problems that we encounter out here are not really indicative of the everyday driving but I think it is indicative of the problems that every driver can get into on the freeways today this corner right here is exactly the same curvature as this one so if this can be made let's say at 20 miles an hour then the next one should also be be able to be made at 20 miles per hour but you drive it to your ability levels rather than trying to look at the speedometer and say okay I'm going to drive it at 20 miles an hour 25 or what have you you drive it to what you feel like you can handle I keep in mind that these are ideals this is not necessarily what you should be doing it [Applause] so if you're taking so much time to react as to knock over some of these approach cones these will count as penalties so ideally you should be able to swerve into the lane before you get to this cone straighten the car up knock over the red one and right on into the lane just take three runs like that don't try and push yourself so fast as you force yourself to go faster than you can handle it though so just take it easy [Music] bring the car in straight rather than at the Eagle to trip and just come right on through it's very easy once you've done it a few times the Los Angeles Police Department's driving Academy is an established training and testing facility although the test problems are not meant to be ordinary occurrences that the average driver encounters they do contain all the basic components of normal driving each problem reproduces accident and emergency situations where quick reflexes as well as judgment and sure control could mean the difference between life and death on the first day of the weekend the subjects are given individualized instructions on the proper technique of driving the test problems at first the subjects experienced difficulty with some of the problems but after a day of intensive training everyone had reached their maximum level of proficiency on the second morning of the experiment weekend the subjects were asked to drive sober to establish a base score each subjects sober score will be compared to the score achieved while driving after drinking since thousands of drivers have been tested on this course a precise method of scoring was available for the experiment in the state of California as in 44 other states a person having point 1o percent alcohol in their bloodstream is presumed by law to be driving under the influence what this means is that if one tenth of one percent of his blood is alcohol he is subject to arrest for driving under the influence but is a driver really impaired at 0.10 blood-alcohol concentration is he a danger to himself and others on the road that's what we're here to find out this experiment was designed to answer that question in a controlled manner [Music] how many drinks do you have to consume to reach a point 100 blood-alcohol content that depends on the drinkers body weight and sex for this experiment each subject is drinking from 6 to 8 ounces of 84 proof alcohol in 90 minutes that's about the same as 6 to 8 drinks in a bar during the drinking accurate records are kept and each subject is supervised dat all times by a monitor you may be saying to yourself that you don't normally drink that much of that fast but the fact is that when most people get started they lose count of how many drinks they've had and how many ounces of alcohol were in each drink the proof of this is that in California the average person arrested for driving under the influence as a blood alcohol content of 0.20 that's double the blood-alcohol content which the test subjects will be brought to for this experiment [Music] how many drinks have you had do you drink are you a social drinker anyway oh yeah always to me having a kid really give us together that's very true get us together you know and then you're you stick together you've been drinking Scott yeah you had five or six now I know I just had five all right you've had five okay the way the world was going you know you can feel everything here downhill right I've had six five is supposed to be the recommended I just took another drink to get I maybe I consume more than the average person you may want to test you this time [Music] okay depending on the results of this we'll probably give you another one - all during the drinking phase the subjects were tested on the gas chromatograph tests have shown the gas chromatograph to be as accurate as blood samples for determining blood alcohol content all right come on a big guy like you ought to be able to do better than I [Music] one who sing to you come on Joe hurry up [Music] [Music] how do you feel right now [Music] start now all I can say about feeling I'm ready to go ahead and go but I don't know what I'm intoxicated on their breathalyzer yet when you get out there on this field with the kinds of tests that you've already been through sober what do you think you'll do what's what's going to be going through your mind I will make it I will make it how about you Rita I'm gonna do beautiful because I feel the same way I did when I started out when the subjects had reached a point one oh they were instructed to drive the course to the best of their ability they were given four runs on each test and were scored both objectively and subjectively on each run the objective scores reflect the number of cones knocked down and the time taken to complete the problem the subjective scores include observations by the instructors of Road position steering control throttle control and judgment [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well I felt a little bit shaky you know it's when you got some alcohol in your body you know you'd feel a little weak you know like your legs are like plastic you know [Music] I am probably the original little old lady driver and now I have a chance to really honk it on before ervice four points this time I'm supposedly drunk quit which I am but I did want to honk it on and I just maybe I should have this is my first part of the test the rest of them I think oh cool [Music] little bit alcohol now used to be just well you know you know it's amazing though you know with the alcohol I wanted really ripping on you were you didn't hold a constant Riley you were using constant acceleration all the way through the town here's the problem of you know you think you can handle just a little bit more now but it's just a little over this really I know that I can't drive as well as I could have whenever sober versus to this is proven or to me it's really curious because I like I sent I am really the original little lady driver drunk and drinking drinking what goes with alcohol but your reflexes are much they don't reflect [Music] very intoxicated how would you evaluate your performance ugly yeah man no way can you let me go out there and drive well I'd be a safe driver because simply my my fingers I'm not conscious of being honest with you I mean I could tell you about my niche is small my I'm a man I can all about liquor that's a lot of bull I'm drunk and I know I'm drunk today I think there will be a considerable a man of impairment if it feels like I will really give it my all very freely [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what I go from here finally the subjects arrived at the accident simulator which calls for good judgment quick reaction time and to firm control of the car although this problem is the most difficult every subject was able to drive it silver of all the tests this one most closely resembles an extreme emergency situation for example a child jumping out from behind a parked car or a vehicle coming to a sudden stop in front of you on the highway if the subjects are not able to get through it now they probably would not be able to avoid an accident on the road while driving at point one Oh blood alcohol content well each one has its own thing but the accident simulator is by far the toughest one do negotiate [Music] oh it's horrible really it's just like it's sitting right on top of you when you get up in those lights change and you got to make or life or right you [Applause] have to think really quick as soon as the lights changed you've got a split-second decision I'm very hard that's the hardest thing this action similar I could see myself going down here 3540 miles an hour and I'm good at ten seven [Music] [Applause] all right not quite as good as I thought I would believe me [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] I think the results of this test will be much more significant than any that has ever been taken to my knowledge the results of the experiment confirm what most experts suspected for some time that is every subject was impaired in his ability to drive the combined total scores showed an overall decrease of 22% between the sober driving and the driving after drinking some of the subjects showed impairment as high as 50% tree lakis impairment was 39% Judge William Mayes 29% impairment Lyn Winkler 19% impairment Jim Wilson 26% impairment Rita Baker 36% impairment Jim Northern 17% impairment and these people were chosen for their proven ability to perform well under the influence of alcohol what would the scores be if the average drinking driver was tested out here on the test field no one was killed or injured and no property was destroyed but what if these same people had been driving on busy streets and jammed highways would they have survived I used to think that I could drive better after having a few drinks but what I've seen here has convinced me that I was wrong and the experience of taking part in the experiment has changed the attitudes of virtually all the subjects as well I'm different for most people I've already went through the experience and I think everybody should go through it could you drive on the street no would you no no wait make me you know what if I drank I don't drive anymore because I don't want to kill somebody not I want to kill myself you know so I just steal wait for me I drink if I drink I drink at home well maybe if I had a drink after dinner I would drive fine but if I go to a party or something I'll arrange to have somebody else drive being a drinker myself and this has made me much more cautious on the road and I think that I think the law needs some some teeth to be able to get the drunk driver off the road well I've had a few a couple of unfortunate I lost my husband and my son to traffic accidents and I'm all alone now and I feel that everyone should be really concerned with safety I just had five drinks and if I'm this snockered at five drinks I hell like Raipur their response I'm just don't care about people's do you remember what you said yeah I said I would do perfect but you can't you can't drink and drive you can't and I thought you could I thought was gonna pull everybody but you can't drink and drive [Music] 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