Safety Bug drives home important message in time for prom season

Niskayuna High School students lined up all morning and into the afternoon to take a ride most of them won’t soon forget.
One spin around the parking in lot in the “Safety Bug” provided teenage drivers and their passengers with firsthand experience about the dangers associated with drinking and driving.
The Safety Bug is actually a Volkswagen Beetle engineered to briefly lose control—simulating what it feels like to drive while under the influence of alcohol. It was developed by the Pennsylvania Driving Under the Influence Association as a way to safely educate teenagers about the perils of driving while impaired.
Only students with valid driver's licenses were permitted to drive. Others who either did not have a driver’s license – or did not have it with them – rode in the backseat.
As student drivers navigated a closed course in the high school parking lot, a trained instructor riding in the front passenger seat would alter the settings in the Safety Bug, temporarily disrupting the vehicle’s steering and braking systems.
Juniors Joseph D’Alessandro and Zach Leighton each took a turn behind the wheel.
“It was like a scary dream,” D’Alessandro said, “not being able to control the vehicle. Luckily, there wasn’t anything to hit, except for the orange (traffic) cones.”
“My response was definitely delayed,” said Leighton. “It felt like everything was numb.”
As a passenger, junior Stephanie Rodriguez thought it was an experience that taught a valuable lesson, especially before prom season.
Members of the Niskayuna Police Department were present to help drive home the point about driving while impaired.
Police officers ran the gamut of sobriety tests on students who were wearing special goggles designed to distort perception. The eyewear–called Fatal Vision goggles–have specially cut lenses that simulate the same type of visual impairment and loss of equilibrium that result from alcohol and drug use.
“The goggles made me really dizzy, so walking a straight line was not easy,” said sophomore Amelia Abba. “I missed catching the ball completely. And I touched the bridge of my nose when I was supposed to touch the tip.”
The Niskayuna DARE program sponsored the Safety Bug presentation.