Janet Schwalbe                 VP Physician Services and Operations

Gina Solomon                    Trauma Program Manager

Rachelle Broom                Trauma Outreach and Injury Prevention Coordinator

Problem:
People mistakenly believe that they have consumed one serving of alcohol when in reality; they may be consuming much more than a single serving of alcohol depending on the type of drink. It’s easy for a person to misjudge alcohol’s effects on their ability to make critical decisions such as driving. Sadly, we often put ourselves and others at risk by driving under the influence because we don’t understand how alcohol affects our body and how long those effects last. People are more likely to drink beyond their limits during celebrations than other times of the year.

Activity:
Trauma Services will be working with Fatal Vision Goggles and the Intoxiclock program as tools to assist in demonstrating the simulated effects of alcohol impairment. Participating individuals enter their gender and weight to learn the connection between consuming their selected alcoholic drinks and its impact on their Blood Alcohol Concentration
and will also see the time it would take for their body to metabolize the ingested alcohol. The participants will then complete part of a field sobriety test while wearing Fatal Vision goggles that correlate with their calculated BAC. Participants will be evaluated on indicators indicative of impairment. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, impaired drivers caused 10,228 traffic fatalities in one year nationwide.

Desired Outcome:
The aim of using the intoxiclock and fatal vision goggles is to engage individuals by using their own information and drink selections to demonstrate alcohol’s impact on their body making the experience more relevant and meaningful. The goal of the activity is to demonstrate how quickly impairment can turn drinking at a party from fun into devastating consequences for anyone who drives while impaired by alcohol.