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SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS YET TO COME
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The potent combination of the festive season and 24-hour licensing has put drink-driving at the top of the road safety agenda. To measure the effects of booze on our driving skills, CM gets stuck into the vodka...
The things we do in the name of science.This assignment . took our test team down to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Crowthome, near BracknelLon a freezing November morning.We're at Crowthorne to drive theTRL's truck simulator, but this isn't an ordinary go on the simulator — we're drinking lots of vodka to see how it affects our performance. It goes without saying that drink-driving is antisocial and potentially deadly; a drunk behind the wheel of an HGV can expect to have the book thrown at him particularly hard, and with good reason — in 2003 drink-driving led to 19,000 accidents on UK roads; 2,580 people were seriously injured and 560 were killed.
But it's dear, despite all the publicity and society's increasingly hostile attitude, that some idiots still believe they can drive safely under the influence of alcohol. We set out to separate fact from fantasy.
Editor Andy Salter and operations editor Cohn Barnett are both experienced truck drivers and both have been known to sink a few pints in their time (Barnett having a peculiar fascination for strong, flat cider). Neither had previous experience on the TRL simulator, so they spent the first half an hour familiarising themselves with this new driving experience.
Testing times
Familiarity session complete, the test kicked off with a baseline run to establish our testers' driving ability when sober.TheTRL team also arranged for a sober driver to carry out a test drive after every run as a control.
The test driving consisted of three elements: a motorway section where the aim was to follow a vehicle in front at a constant distance; a second motorway section beset by fog whiteouts which the driver had to recognise by flashing his lights; and a single-carriageway test route with lots of tight turns,The total driving time was approximately 20 minutes.
Over the limit
The TRL team measured the height and weight of the CM staffers in order to assess what dose of alcohol would be required to bring them up to the legal alcohol limit.The plan was to dose up the testers, firstly to the limit of 80mg of alcohol per I 00m1 of blood, then drive the route, followed by more alcohol and more driving.The alcohol in this case was vodka, with a splash of coke in it to make it almost palatable.
Neither Salter nor Barnett is in the habit of kicking off their drinking at I 1.30am, but both managed to absorb the required dosage of one triple and one quadruple measure in the space of 30 mm utes.The breathalyser test was carried out 40 minutes later and it was clear the drinks had hit the mark, with both testers just over the legal limit on the breath tester (sec the panel). After a repeat drive, a further four shots of vodka were downed and the breathalysing process was repeated, followed by a final spin in the simulator. w