Spring Break
The Daily OrangeCrash simulation warns of drunk driving dangers
By Haley Behre
Posted: 10/22/09, 2:57 AM EST Section: News
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"Oh, my gosh. What just happened?" Sharisa Bufford asks members of the crowd gathering around.
Police give the driver a sobriety test and find that he is intoxicated. The injured woman is put onto a stretcher, and the man is covered in a white blanket. Medics pronounce him dead.
"Is this real? Is this real?" Bufford asks.
This simulated scene played out Wednesday on University Place as part of Alcohol Awareness Week. The injured woman was an actress, and the man was a dummy. Bufford, a junior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, was one of almost 100 spectators who gathered to watch the demonstration.
The Panhellenic Council joined forces with the Department of Public Safety, Syracuse University Ambulance and the Options Program to simulate the drunk driving accident, which began at 11:30 a.m.
"There is a sufficient amount of drunk driving on campus," said Cpl. Daniel Lebron, a member of DPS who helped lead the simulation. "So it is a great idea to alert the community about the real world."
The mock drunk driving accident is part of an Alcohol Awareness Series, held during National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, which runs Oct. 18-24.
Kimberley Holley, vice president of judicial and standards of Panhellenic Council, organized the event.
"These events are normally for the Greek community," Holley said, "but I wanted to reach out to everyone."
Holley had seen a similar simulation at her high school and wanted to bring the demonstration and its powerful message to SU.
Jason Fraser, a junior in the School of Information Studies, said he's often afraid to drive on campus at night in fear of drunk drivers.
"When you're drunk, you do not have good vision," he said.
Yang Yang, a sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, agreed and said this simulation makes people more aware of the problem teenagers have with drunk driving.
Yang believes that this is one of the reasons America has a higher drinking age than many other countries.
About two percent of Americans age 18 and older surveyed reported alcohol-impaired driving, according to statistics from the Mother's Against Drunk Driving Web site.
A drunk driver kills someone every 45 minutes, according to the Web site. In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk-driving related crashes.
hmbehre@syr.edu
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