Heather Monahan
Features Editor
According to distraction.gov, 2011 saw 3,331 deaths caused by distracted driving. In the same year, 31 percent of all driving fatalities were caused by drunk driving, according to centurycouncil.org.
Jason Bock, owner of Mad Matt’s Entertainment, visited St. Bonaventure Tuesday and gave students a chance to simulate drunk and distracted driving to see how dangerous these activities are.
“These are just driver education training simulators so they’re originally designed to teach high school students or adults how to drive,” Bock said. “What I do then is, with my texting and beer goggles, turn it into a drunk and distracted driver simulator.”
Once students get used to driving on the simulator, Bock introduces texting into the program.
“I’ve set up a texting relay so when you text (the number), it starts asking you questions,” Bock said. “The idea is you’re answering the questions while you’re driving so you can get a real sense of actually texting with your own phone.”
Bock says having students use their own phones during the texting portion of the simulator eliminates common excuses about not being used to a different phone used in the simulation.
Junior journalism and mass communication major Mike Bednarowicz said he was surprised at how difficult the challenge was.
“Texting and driving is a lot more difficult than I anticipated it would be,” Bednarowicz said. “I don’t do it (in real life), but it’s actually pretty hard to do.”
Bock said the texting and driving challenge results spoke for themselves about the dangers of the distracted driving.
“Practically everybody crashed,” he said. “In the unlikely event they didn’t crash when they were texting, they were driving in the other lane, missing stop lights and stop signs, and that sort of thing. No one can do it. Even professional drivers have tried to text and drive and have failed at it.”
After answering the series of questions via texts, students wore beer goggles to simulate drunk driving.
“The goggles represent about a .22 or .23 blood alcohol concentration, so that’s extremely intoxicated,” Bock said. “Most people can’t even get out of the parking lot wearing those. There’s virtually just no way with the goggles to be able to operate a vehicle safely.”
Kendra Rideout, a freshman undeclared arts major, said the simulator taught her about the dangers of drunk driving.
“When it came to the goggles, it really made me feel as if I was drunk driving,” Rideout said. “I couldn’t see anything. I felt blurry. It was weird.”
Junior elementary education major Tommy Bellucco said the simulation was a good learning experience.
“I definitely found out that it’s not easy to drive with a .22,” he said. “But it was a good experience to see how difficult it actually is.”
Bellucco, who works at the Richter Center, said he saw people doing the simulator while he was working and decided to give it a try after he heard it was fun.
Junior business information systems major Andrew Dugan also heard about the program from others.
“I’m an RA in Rob, and all the residents said it was a really good time,” Dugan said. “So I’m trying to relate to them.”
Bock said he enjoys coming to Bonaventure and the fact that the program counts as a passport event for freshmen.
“We’re excited to keep coming out here,” he said. “We love the fact that St. Bonaventure wants their students to do it. It really helps make sure people get a chance to do this and try it out.”
According to Bock, the simulator is more of a learning experience than a scare tactic.
“We’re not trying to scare people or anything. We just want to show people that if they do some of these things while they’re actually driving, this is what actually happens,” Bock said. “So we’re happy to come out and keep doing this.”
