GREENSBORO, N.C. — High school students begin celebrating prom this season. Unfortunately, the celebration often includes alcohol, making this the most dangerous time of the year of youth drunk driving.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), one in three alcohol-related teen traffic fatalities occurred during the prom season, from April to June.
That feeling after having a few alcoholic drinks equates to what the Greensboro Police Department's drunk goggles show us. It's blurry, you feel dizzy, and driving is out of the question.
Greensboro's Police Department put them to the test to show teens why they should not drive impaired.
"We're gonna drive through the cones without any type of visual impairment and see how they do, see how easy it is, and then we're going to use the impairment goggles to show that driving through the cones with some type of visual impairment is much more difficult than driving without," said Tom Fetzer.
In a controlled environment, Public Information Officer, Josie Cambareri, was put to the test.
Tom Fetzer, a part of the Greensboro Police Traffic Safety Unit, had Cambareri drive without the drunk goggles, and then again with the ones that were 2 times the drinking limit.
"These goggles are merely meant to show a visual impairment because a true impairment, of course, would also affect things like fine motor skills, your reaction time would be slower, and your cognitive ability to make decisions would be slower," said Fetzer.
While Cambareri nailed the sober run-through, the drunk simulation was a completely different situation.
"Whoa, all right," Cambareri said. "I have almost no depth perception, everything's very blurry, and I feel dizzy just having the goggles on."
She was confident they would make it through the course, but as soon as the goggles went on, she plowed through the cones.
Fetzer said it shows exactly how difficult it is to drive and how drivers are not able to focus on the road.
"We want to show teenagers that are getting ready to attend prom that if you're out and you're having a good time, you go to prom and everything, we don't want you to drink and drive," said Fetzer. "We don't want you to have any impairment and get behind the wheel because that's dangerous for both the driver and then everybody else on the road."
Fetzer said all the time, officers see teens under the age of 21 out driving while impaired. North Carolina law states you cannot have any alcohol in your system, while driving, if you're under the age of 21. You will get charged as an adult with Driving While impaired, regardless if it's over the .08 legal limit or not.
Fetzer said it can be a silly simulation, but it's to drive home a message that driving impaired can be deadly.
"It's kind of silly when you think about it, but at the same time we're trying to drive home a very important message when we do these demonstrations, especially when we have somebody that's just learning to drive or beginning to drive and they get behind the wheel of the golf cart and they can see that you know, any type of impairment like this can be very detrimental when you're trying to drive a 2000 or 3000-pound vehicle down the road," said Fetzer.
He said to keep yourself safe and others as well. If you're out and having a good time, do not drive and find a ride.
"Please there's plenty of options out there to find a ride home," he said. "Find a designated driver that hasn't been drinking, call your parents because being punished for drinking is a lot better than getting behind the wheel of the vehicle impaired and trying to drive home, call an Uber, call a friend, you can call the police and if we have somebody available when you're in dire need of a ride, we will send somebody to get you home safely. "