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I recently found myself arguing with a police officer after wiping out on Main Street. It’s not what you think, though. I was roped into driving a go-kart around the parking lot in front of Azle Community Center, 404 W. Main Street, after area police officers had been trained on a new program to deter young drivers from drinking and driving.
The go-cart was not completely under my control – but that was the point. I murdered numerous orange cones standing in for pretend pedestrians.
“It wasn’t my fault! He pushed that button!” I’m pretty sure I sounded just like a teenager as I complained to David Vanderkaay about having control taken away from me by a Bridgeport officer as I drove through (and over) the cones. SIDNE (Simulated Impaired DriviNg Experience) is a new weapon in the Azle Police Department’s battle against teens driving under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicating substance. I knew what I was getting into because I had watched the police officers for about 30 minutes as they were trained to use the vehicle to teach young drivers the dangers of driving when your judgement and reflexes are impaired.
It looks like a go-kart, low to the ground and open to the air. Officers from Azle, Bridgeport, Hudson Oaks, Lake Worth and River Oaks were trained by a Sheriff’s Deputy from Ohio on how to teach teens as they experience “impairment.” “Use their comments as a teaching opportunity,” Dave Andrews told the officers earlier this month. My comments didn’t slow down long enough to give Vanderkaay a chance to practice his “teaching-opportunity” skills. Azle’s Crime Control and Prevention District (CCPD) purchased the program, which is comprised of about five different components. The go-kart and “impairment gun” are one. There are also goggles that simulated the experience of being drunk – Myers said students can be put in the go-kart and wear the goggles – as well as computer training software and a photographic software that will alter a picture of the student to show what kinds of injuries are possible in different types of accidents. “You put a picture of the student in and the software changes the picture,” he said. The overall cost was a little over $28,000, he said. The first use of SIDNE will be with this summer’s class of driver’s training students at Azle High School, Myers said. “Then I’ve asked Sgt. Jones to work out ways for us to use it at Sting Fling and at an event of our own for the public,” Myers added. |
