Save A Life Tour comes to PHS

According to the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, alcohol kills more than six times more young people than all the other illicit drugs combined.

Being aware of the fallout of this statistic, Jessica DePagter, a Plymouth resident and concerned parent, set out to do her part to raise community awareness about the seriousness of the drinking and driving problem.

“I had an alcohol-related incident involving a family member,” DePagter said. “This changed my family’s lives and motivated me to try to make a difference for others.”

Thus, she began a fundraising endeavor and collected $5,000 to bring a Michigan-based, national, highpact, alcohol-awareness program, known as the Save A Life Tour, to Plymouth.

The Plymouth School District is sponsoring six one-hour sessions of the program, which will be held in the Acuity auditorium at Plymouth High School, on early release day, Wednesday, April 21.

The first session, for PHS students only, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The public is invited to attend all five of the remaining sessions. The second session begins at 12:30 p.m. and hourly thereafter. The program concludes at 5:30.

During each session, 15 audience participants, who have signed up in advance, will individually enter a driving simulator. The simulator will provide each participant a virtual and realistic perspective of the effects of driving while intoxicated. The level of impairment is based upon nationally recognized formulas of body weight and the number of drinks.

Some of simulator’s features include: .A fully interactive, real-time driving experience, providing immediate visual and auditory feedback. .Variable weather dynamics – fog, rain, snow and ice. .High-speed graphics acceleration, with texturing, shading and lighting.

.A meter that indicates simulated blood/alcohol content.

.Software that includes driving situations with a variety of vehicles, within a 50 square-mile virtual world, with 87 miles of roadway. Roadway types vary from city to rural, and from highway to gravel lanes. Although driving takes place on roadways, the system permits off-road driving, with the driver feeling the full effects.

.The simulator’s state-of-the-art features incorporate the same technology being used to train the nation’s top military and law-enforcement personnel.

.Full immersion allows participants to drive in a completely interactive environment with a true 225- degree field of vision, with force feedback steering, seat movement, digitally recorded and produced sounds and fully textured 3D graphics, with shading and lighting effects.

.There are no reruns. No two drives are the same. The driver spontaneously determines the route in more than 100 miles of roadway, surrounded by unpredictable traffic and randomly selected environmental settings for time of day and weather conditions.

Audience members begin the experience as witnesses of other drivers’ bad judgment and deteriorating driving skills, due to alcohol consumption. Two additional large-screen displays reveal what each driver sees, the face of the driver, a helicopter view of the driver’s vehicle in traffic and an indicator of the driver’s impairment as it gradually worsens.

Simulator participants are given an orientation of their virtual environment. Then with a foot on the brake, they turn on the ignition, shift into gear and begin driving. Audio and visual cues begin informing each driver and witnesses that the motorist is driving under the influence. At each cue, a level of impairment is indicated, and the vehicle’s handling changes correspondingly. The ride usually ends in serious accident.

Each driver then moves on to the full-immersion simulator, with five high-resolution displays and a different driving environment. At this point, he or she might encounter a little more difficulty such as nighttime driving in dense, aggressive traffic, or inching along through fog in a valley, wondering if the road is icy. The level of impairment is increased through time with the drive normally ending in a serious accident.

Every simulator driver is served with a simulated citation, as a record of his or her Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

The presenters of the Save A Life Tour bill themselves as the “shock jocks of anti-drunk driving.”

The program is highly acclaimed nationwide.

“The Save A Life Tour is an excellent opportunity to engage the community in a good discussion about drinking and driving, said PHS Principal, Dan Mella. “This is a community-wide issue.”

He added that all students who participate in extra-curricular activities are required to attend the program.

Mella noted that adults are welcome to participate in the simulator experience during the 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. sessions. Those interested are asked to sign up in the PHS office.

He emphasized that no taxpayer dollars are being used for the program. It is financed solely through DePagter’s fundraising.

Note: For further information about the April 21 Save A Life Tour, phone Plymouth High School at 893-6911.