Amber Stafford

Assignment Editor

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol offered the Simulated Impaired Driving Experience to students on Wed. Sept. 25 in the Wellness Center parking lot.

SIDNE’s is a special battery-powered, remote controlled vehicle that provides an actual experience with normal versus impaired driving. The vehicle has special features that delay the reaction of the brakes and gas pedals.  Drivers were given instructions on how to operate and drive through the pre-set course. After drivers got the feel for the course, SIDNE then is switched on to impaired mode. The drivers were given goggles to wear to impair their vision, just like driving under the influence.

“It was good, but with goggles on it was like driving [with] 3-D things coming at you,” Skylie Hurt, Pre-Medicine major, said.

The combined consensus of students said that driving normally was fine, but with the simulator the students felt that the experience of driving while the impaired was very dangerous and would not recommend it.

SIDNE is provided through Innocorp, Ltd. and is being used for demonstrations in the fight against drunk driving throughout Oklahoma.