photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

From left: North Charleston Police Officers Andrew Turner and Victor Hendrix conduct a filed sobriety test with student Ryan Kestler.

photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

Dorchester County EMS Lt. Josh Arrant shows students a syringe that is often used on patients after serious traffic accidents.

Fort students ‘intoxicated’ with goggles

Close to 900 Fort Dorchester High School students drove under the influence at what might have been their first rodeo.

On Wednesday morning local public safety agencies got together and brought cones, golf carts and “drunk goggles” to The Fort parking lot as students saw through their own eyes the dangers of drunk driving and texting while driving.

“It is truly amazing to see how poorly the students are able to navigate our course while trying to use a phone,” said Charleston County EMS paramedic Carl Fehr, also President of the High School Injury Prevention Coalition, which sponsors DUI prevention programs at five area high schools and is made up of local hospitals, law enforcement and EMS.

The coalition is in schools each month with various activities like essay contests, he said.

The drunk goggles make it seem like students are above the legal limit but only affect vision, not delayed reactions and impaired judgment, according to Fehr.

Students also wore the goggles to walk a not-so-straight line in failed field sobriety tests and attempted to kick a single cone.

“It was kind of confusing,” junior Christopher Gadsden-Williams said of running and missing the cone with his foot. “You think it’s right there but it’s over there. I know none of this would happen. I would never drink and drive.”

Running with drunk goggles makes the world look incredibly twisted and kicking a small cone becomes as easy as lassoing a steer at a rodeo.

“Kids kick to the left or the right of the cone,” S.C. Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Bob Beres said. “A drunk sees the roadway to the left. In reality it’s in the middle.”

Only one of the 900 students attending the DUI rodeo kicked the cone, Beres said.

“At 1 mph they can’t kick a cone one foot in front of them,” Beres said, adding that the same impairment becomes a major problem at 70 mph on the Interstate.

Big events like the DUI rodeo come right before prom season and the holidays, times when there is more peer pressure to drink, according to Fehr. Students need repetitive messages of smart decision making, he said.

Students seemed to get the message.

“Don’t text and drive,” senior Paris Chew said after plowing down several cones with a golf cart on the serpentine course.

“I’m never getting drunk and driving – ever,” senior Jenna Grooms said after driving a golf cart with the goggles.

EMS workers from MUSC and Dorchester County showed students gurneys and syringes. North Charleston Firefighter Chris Ward showed off the “Jaws Of Life,” a nickname for cutters and spreaders used to get people out of mangled cars.

“I took a couple of the tests too,” FDHS Principal Elena Furnari said. “My heart is racing. It’s a great experience for our kids. Texting and driving can be as bad as drinking.”

“Don’t drink and drive and make sure you don’t get in the car with someone who’s been drinking,” Fehr reiterated, adding that if a student has been drinking they should call a parent, family or taxi. “What we don’t want to happen is us knocking on their parents’ door.

“A lot of high school kids think they’re invincible. These things may happen to them if they don’t make good decisions.”

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