‘A real wake-up call’: Program gives youth opportunity to experience impaired driving

An advanced driving program is giving students the opportunity to see what it feels like to drive while impaired in a safe closed-course setting.

Ford Motor Canada has launched its Ford Driving Skills for Life program to show students the dangers of unsafe driving.

There are four closed course programs that allow the young drivers to recreate scenarios that involve challenging vehicle-handling situations, impaired driving and distracted driving.

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Lead instructor Dave Drimmie says there is a high prevalence of automobile accidents and fatalities amongst youth.

“This is advanced driver training – safety training – for our youth to just make enlightened decisions before they get behind the wheel of a car,” Drimmie said.

The program uses “fatal vision goggles” to show the student what it feels like to drive drunk in a closed-off parking lot.

“It simulates impairment,” Drimmie said.

“So we are actually going to let them drive impaired. Not because we want them to think they can drive impaired, but because it’s going to demonstrate to them they can’t drive impaired.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "So we are actually going to let them drive impaired. Not because we want them to think they can drive impaired, but because it's going to demonstrate to them they can't drive impaired."

Drimmie added more than 30 per cent of teens don’t consider high driving as dangerous and drunk driving.

Three hundred youth around the GTA are expected to participate in the driving program.

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Student Ryan Harris couldn’t believe how challenging it was to operate the vehicle while using the glasses.

“That was a real wake-up call for drunk driving…The goggles, you can barely see five feet in front of you. You don’t know where you are,” Harris said.

“It’s really made me reconsider about having even one beer and driving… it’s not worth it.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's really made me reconsider about having even one beer and driving… it's not worth it."

Const. Ryan Willmer says over his 10 years working with Toronto police, he’s seen too many tragedies around impaired driving and hopes programs like Ford’s Driving Skills for Life will have younger generations think twice before getting behind the wheel when drunk or high.