Hardly Seeing Is Believing

The stern-faced officer, his thumb hooked in his gun belt, pointed to the white line painted on the asphalt and told me to take nine steps, walking heel to toe. I looked down and my shoes were blurry. Not a good sign. The first three steps were easy, but on the fourth I teetered badly.

“I’m not sure I should be doing this without a net,” I told Ken Cowing, a veteran Oceanside cop. He actually laughed at the gag--after all, this was just fun and games, not a real drunk driving arrest.

The scene played out after I drove south to Oceanside last week to take part in an odd experiment highlighting the dangers of drunk driving. I strapped on a Fatal Vision headset, a fancy piece of eye wear that warps your eyesight and gives you a dazed, woozy feel, not unlike a few stiff martinis. You’ve heard jokes about Beer Goggles--think of this as a full-on Vodka Visor.

Cowing tossed me a small, blue teddy bear to test my perceptions and I couldn’t catch it in three tries. Cowing’s fellow officer, Lew Shaker, told me to hand over my driver’s license. I fumbled through my wallet and thrust the card at his elbow even though I was staring hard at his hand. The whole time, I was swaying, trying to find my feet.

If I had been a truly tipsy driver standing on the roadside for a real test, I’d have been well on my way to county jail on a misdemeanor DUI by that point. I’d also be looking at more than $4,000 in fines and legal fees (based on average first-time-offender costs), not to mention a bruising hike in insurance costs. Or, worst of all, I might be regretting a crash that could have hurt or killed someone.

After I flunked my field sobriety test, Cowing and Shaker set me up behind the wheel of a car and had me try an obstacle course with the goggles on. I took two runs through, once wearing a visor that simulates a 0.08% blood-alcohol level (the legal definition of drunk) and once at 0.15% (absolutely wasted).

Even with all my concentration, the 0.08% goggles made me a sloppy driver. I didn’t hit any of the orange cones, but I took the corners way too tight and lurched at the beginning and end. And that was without contending with any traffic.

“Even though you didn’t hit anything, you might get pulled over just for looking like you were trying too hard,” Shaker told me.

The 0.15% goggles turned the world into a hazy prism and the cones became blurry orange blobs. I had to drive a lot slower and it was hard to judge distances. Still, I only grazed a few cones--until I completely crumpled the finish line marker.

“You did great until you ended up about five feet in the intersection,” Cowing said. “You whacked a pedestrian or the patrol car stopped at the light in front of you.”

More than that, I had a chance to look through drunken eyes with a sober mind, and it was pretty scary. Cowing and Shaker have seen thousands of people try on the Fatal Vision goggles, from high school students to street cops to Marines, and they said the exercise is usually an eye-opening one. “They’re believers after they try them,” Shaker said. “It really lets you see how alcohol affects your sense of timing and space. People always think they are less impaired than they are, and this shows them what it’s really like.”

And, just like cocktails, there’s a price to pay when you’re done: After wearing the goggles too long, I had a piercing headache that lasted hours. Great. My first alcohol-free hangover.

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SHOTS HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD: The Fourth of July seems to bring out the worst in drunk drivers. More people have been killed or injured on California roads during the patriotic celebration than any other holiday, according to a five-year study by the Automobile Club of Southern California.

This year, the fireworks fall on a weekend, making matters worse. “People will have the weekend mentality going and they won’t worry about things they should be worried about--like driving--and they’ll have a few drinks and be out in the sun all day,” says Lt. Jon Arnold of the Huntington Beach police. “Throw it all together and you get a mess out there.”

The Auto Club study showed that an average of 172 people were killed or injured in this state on the holiday in recent years. That’s a full 30% more than the numbers for Thanksgiving (132 deaths or injuries) and 15% more than the New Year’s celebrations (153).

If you’re like me, those numbers probably surprise you. The winter holidays get far more publicity aimed at the drunk driving issue, and that may be part of the reason the Fourth comes in first in the grisly stats, according to Reidel Post, director of the Orange County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“People are hearing and thinking about it during Christmas and New Year’s and Thanksgiving, and maybe [Independence Day] doesn’t get the attention it should,” Post says. “It’s warm out now, and people have waited a long while and they’re tired of the rain. They’re going to be celebrating this weekend and, unfortunately, celebration often brings with it drunk driving.”

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TIP OF THE WEEK: If you’re drunk or even close to it, hand your keys to a friend or splurge and treat yourself to a taxi. It’s worth it in the long run. Here’s another option for getting home: The Auto Club is offering its Tipsy Tow program on the Fourth of July. Just call (800) 400-4222 and a tow truck will be sent to pick up you and your car. The truck will tow you seven miles free, and after that there’s a per-mile fee that varies by the tow service.

Again, that’s a bargain compared to the cost of a DUI offense or the incalculable toll of inflicting injury on yourself or others.

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The Roads Scholar wants to hear your insights, stories and questions about traffic, the commuting experience and Orange County transportation issues. Call Geoff Boucher at (714) 966-5724, send e-mail to him at geoff.boucher@la times.com or mail letters to Geoff Boucher, c/o The Roads Scholar, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Please include your full name, hometown and phone number.

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Sobering Sight

Hundreds of law enforcement agencies and educators across the United States and in 14 other countries are using special glasses to simulate the effect of having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08% to 0.18%. The glasses--which cost $200 to $250 a pair--impair depth percention without distorting vision.

How They Work

* Lens is made of 20 to 30 prisms that look like a clear, ridged potato chip.

* Light is refracted, or bent, through prisms that shift vision to the left and right. Blurred effect throws off depth perception and balance, impairing judgment.

Source: Innocorp, Ltd.

Peripheral Vision Driving

Studies show that alcohol reduces peripheral vision by 30%. Even without alcohol, the faster you drive, the worse your peripheral vision. Drivers have a harder time seeing potential problems coming from either side.

Source: American Automobile Assn.

Researched by GEOFF BOUCHER and APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times

Dangerous Independence

Independence Day is the most dangerous holiday on California roadways in recent years. A look at statewide driving fatalities by different three-day holiday periods:

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New Fourth Labor Christ- Year’s of July Day mas Eve 1993 54 65 20 30 1994 35 39 36 37 1995 47 47 35 30 1996 50 37 8 14 1997 60 44 32 47

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Source: California Highway Patrol