Students try out TUPD’s Drunk Driving Simulation

Driving drunk on campus is not condoned by the Troy University Police Department, but last Wednesday, TUPD officers encouraged students to drive while impaired in a controlled environment. 

At the event, called Drive if You Dare, students wore goggles that simulated increasingly higher levels of drunkenness. They were then tasked with driving a golf cart around a set of cones, trying their best not to hit any.  

“The cones were pretty spaced out, but when you’re seeing double, they look a bit more clustered,” said Tucker Bryant, a sophomore global business major from Dothan, Alabama. “Trying to drive under those conditions is extremely unsafe and puts a significant risk on everything around you.” 

Another student had a similar experience. 

“Apparently, we weren’t supposed to hit the cones, and I hit seven of them,” said Ashton Harris, a sophomore biomedical science major from Phenix City, Alabama. “So yeah, don’t drink and drive because you will hit people and maybe not know it apparently.  

“It was more difficult than expected, so I will not ever be doing that again.” 

While the event was lighthearted and fun for the most part, the message TUPD wanted to convey was much more serious. Outside of the controlled environment of the event, driving under the influence is far more dangerous. 

“A lot of times, most of the people we encounter are like ‘oh, I have only had two drinks,’" said TUPD Officer John Petersen. “It actually is pretty eye-opening to a lot of the students, you know, they can hit some of the cones, knock them over and they realize how dangerous this can be.” 

TUPD also used Drive If You Dare to promote its Choose Your Ride Program, which offers Troy students a safer way to get home if they are intoxicated or unable to drive for any other reason. 

“If they call the Troy University non-emergency number, they will dispatch one of our officers on shift, and one of them will arrive on scene” Petersen said. “As long as they have a driver's license or a student ID and we can clarify their information, we can get them transported to an apartment complex, a dorm on campus, and it’s just a way, especially for someone who is drunk, to get back home safely.” 

Underage students who are drunk and use the taxi service do have to be reported to student services, but TUPD says that first-time offenders will not be criminally prosecuted as a minor in possession.