Dangerous Roads newsletter: Drunk goggles' perspective, from the safety of a pedal car

As a Newsday transportation reporter for 17 years now, I’ve found the most fun assignments are the ones that involve wearing protective equipment — hard hats, reflective vests, etc.

And so when I stepped into the Mount Sinai High School gymnasium on March 27 to cover a distracted driving event organized by the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, I lit up when I saw pedal cars, an obstacle course and, my favorite, goggles.

Alas, these were no ordinary goggles. They were part of a traveling demonstration organized by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s STOP-DWI program, which regularly visits high schools throughout the county.

The "drunk goggles," as Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Milano called them, are meant to simulate driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. I sat down, went to put on the goggles, and was already off to a bad start.

"You’re breaking my first rule. You’re getting in the car with the goggles off," Milano said. "You put them on and walk over to it, because you drink in the bar and then walk to your car. Nobody’s drinking in the car."

Indeed, the goggles complicated the simple task of even mounting the Big Wheel-like pedal car. Once in the driver’s seat, I navigated the serpentine course at a deliberate pace, doing my best to avoid the cones set up along the edges, despite the goggles giving me blurry, double vision and a distorted depth perception.

I thought I completed the obstacle course flawlessly, but was told by Milano that I "hit a couple" cones with my rear tires.

"Each cone is supposed to represent a human being," Milano explained. "So if you touch a cone, you end up killing that person." Yikes.

Thankfully, the two casualties on my conscience were of the orange, rubber variety. But, of course, in the real world the stakes would be much higher.

"The idea behind it is to educate the students, the ones that are driving, about the effects of alcohol and drugs on them and on how they operate a motor vehicle," Milano told me at the event. "It’s the best way to demonstrate being drunk without actually being drunk."

As I am known to enjoy the occasional glass of Hampton Water rosé from the safety of my deck, I can attest the goggles provide a reasonable facsimile of the physical effects of having one too many. What they can’t replicate are the mental effects of being under the influence, and the poor decision-making that could lead you to stumbling into that seat behind the steering wheel and insisting you’re fine to drive.

And, just as the goggles are meant to simulate the effects of both alcohol and drugs, it’s not just booze affecting the vision, reflexes and judgment of drivers in New York. Nearly a quarter of all fatal crashes on Long Island in 2023 had a "drug-involved driver" — a proportion higher than the state average and seven percentage points higher than in 2014, according to state data.

As fellow Newsday transportation reporter Peter Gill explained in a recent story, "in some recent years, there were actually more fatal crashes with a drugged driver than those with a ‘drinking driver,’ a category that can overlap."

Driving safety advocates and prosecutors are now pushing to strengthen state laws to expand the list of substances it’s illegal to drive on to include any that impair physical or mental abilities. They’re hoping state lawmakers will see the issue clearly — although there are no goggles for that.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.