Molson in the Community

permission from Paul McLeod to post his article (and his picture) from the Halifax Daily News on his experience with vision impairment goggles that Molson provided to raise awareness to make responsible choices this holiday season…

PAUL MCLEOD

The Daily News

You wouldn’t think you could fit a drinking binge into a pair of goggles. I didn’t.

But as my golf cart careened awkwardly into a cardboard stop sign, I discovered just how wrong I was.

Dubbed fatal-vision goggles, they simulate drunkenness to a surprisingly realistic degree. Everything looks slightly blurry and out of place. Your depth perception is shot and your co-ordination is MIA. Operation Red Nose volunteers will laugh as you struggle to slap a simple high five.

Operation Red Nose, Halifax Regional Police, RCMP and Molson joined forces to set up a fatal vision course yesterday to show the effects of drunk driving. The goal is to pilot a golf cart through a course of pylons and obstacles while wearing the goggles.

It sounds so easy.

I first try night goggles, which simulate the effects of about three or four drinks, while throwing in a greenish Hulk-vision to imitate night.

At high speeds

Eschewing caution, I buzz through the course at high speeds. The results are not pretty. On my worst run I hit seven obstacles, including some pylons, a truck and a cyclist. A train may also have been involved; I can’t be sure.

I slam the brakes as I roll to the finish line. Luckily, no one is taking any pictures with a cellphone camera.

I fare a bit better with the daytime goggles, even though they’re more powerful and simulate roughly six to eight drinks. With the goggles, it’s like driving drunk on absinthe while looking through a kaleidoscope.

“Go faster,” my photographer urges, only to laugh traitorously when I overdo a turn and take out an unsuspecting crowd of cardboard pedestrians.

Every so often, I think I’m getting the hang of it, and then inevitably feel a pylon ricochet off my back wheel.

Volunteers chuckle nearby. I can only imagine the police in the room are recording my name for future reference.

The goggles bought by Molson cost between $300 and $400, so at least it’s good to know they work. The exercise also works. I’m now skeptical of my ability to drive sober, let alone drunk.

Suffice to say, on the streets my golf cart and I would be history. Or at the very least, thrown in a cardboard drunk tank.

Posted by Ferg Devins on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 6:31 am in Responsible Choices
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