The Triangle

Issue date: 10/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Melissa Cell

The office of Alcohol, Other Drug and Health Education brought the P.E.E.R.S. Aware III simulator to campus Oct. 15 to raise awareness of students' drinking behavior and how it impacts them while driving, according to John Watson, director of Alcohol, Other Drug and Health Education and assistant director of counseling.

"We liked the combination of state-of-the-art, virtual reality kind of programming. It seems to have a greater appeal than a speaker would. It's a higher impact and it's kind of fun to do," Watson said.

The simulator works with the driver wearing a head-mounted display that computer-generates a highway by using virtual reality software. There are also sensors attached to the car which sends data to the software and emulates real road conditions, according to the P.E.E.R.S. web site.

Within the first 45 minutes, about 25 people came out and tried out the simulator, according to Watson.

Watson added that the Alcohol, Other Drug and Health Education Office's goal was to have 75 to 100 people come out during the six-hour event; however, there ended up being a total of 148 people testing out the simulator.

Alex Demeo, a freshman majoring in civil engineering, saw the car and decided to try it out.

"I was trying to see how fast it would go, but then a truck backed out in the middle of the highway," Demeo said.

Demeo said he only got about three seconds into it before he crashed into the truck.

It took about six weeks of planning to bring the simulator to campus, according to Watson.

Each year there are about 17,000 fatalities from drinking and driving, Watson said, 1,700 of which involve college students. In total, there are about 600,000 drinking and driving accidents involving college students each year.

To Watson's knowledge, there have been no such accidents this year from Drexel students leaving a party on campus or near campus.

"One of the reasons why that number is small, if nonexistent, is most students, if they are drinking around campus, are walking to wherever they are going," Watson said.

An average of 35 students a year go to the Drexel counseling office after receiving a DUI; however there are many who receive counseling off-campus, according to Watson.

"The hope is for those that participate maybe to think twice before they get behind the wheel of a car next time," Watson said.

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