MVC students take turns behind wheel of drunken driving simulator

Above: Hitting the road, a Missouri Valley College student starts the drunk driving simulator at the "sober" difficulty level during the Save a Life Tour's visit to the campus in Marshall earlier this week. The event was sponsored by a group of MVC fraternities and sororities. [Click to enlarge]

Missouri Valley College students stepped up to what looked like a glorified arcade game while an open casket sat behind them. The rhythm of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" throbbed lightly in the background -- "... Oh, oh child, way you shake that thing, gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting ... ."

The device, with three large monitors, steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, was a bit more than a massive video game; it was a firsthand experience of the effects of intoxication on driving ability. The message of the day wasn't to avoid drinking alcohol, but rather to keep car keys out of the hands of those who have been.

The Save a Life Tour, an "edu-tainment" production of simulation maker Kramer International Inc. and FAAC Inc., came to the Missouri Valley College campus Monday in an effort to curb drunk driving.

Below: An open casket stands as a reminder to MVC students of the potential hazards of drinking and driving. [Click to enlarge]

The simulator starts with a simulation of sober driving, detailed down to turn-key starting and blinkers. Then, the difficulty steadily increases, until it finally reaches a simulation of a .34 percent blood alcohol content based on the driver's weight -- roughly equal to a 130-pound person downing an entire 12-pack. In Missouri it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level over .08 percent.

As the artificial intoxication steps up, delayed reactions kick in. Turns especially become more difficult, as does maintaining constant speeds.

Most participants wreck within minutes of the drunken driving simulation beginning, even after quite a bit of practice time "sober." One Valley driver was T-boned by oncoming traffic. Several had near-misses with school busses. One hit a building.

The simulator was started at noon and the hallway was quickly packed with the lunch crowd. By 2:30 p.m. about 45 students had run through it, those running the event said, with many more just watching. "The coffin scares a lot of them off," one worker said. An average day of the simulator set up on a campus sees about 120 participants.

The event was sponsored by the Missouri Valley College chapters of Alpha Sima Alpha, Alpha Sigma Phi, Phi Beta Sigma, Sigma Nu, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta Phi Alpha.

Contact Matt Heger at

marshallbusiness@socket.net