Chikushino Driving School in Fukuoka, a city in southwestern Japan, has initiated a controlled experiment that lets people drive under the influence. The campaign aims to dissuade overly confident drivers from mixing alcohol and driving.
The program coincides with the 17th anniversary of a tragic accident in which three children from Fukuoka — two boys aged four and three, and their one-year-old sister — lost their lives. Their family car was hit by a city employee driving under the influence.
The recent study included two journalists from the Mainichi Shimbun. One drank alcohol and drove, while the other observed as a sober co-passenger.
Initially, the drivers were tasked with navigating three different road challenges — a slalom, an S-bend, and a set of narrow turns — in a sober state. Reporter Hyelim Ha then consumed a 350ml can of beer and a glass each of umeshu plum wine and shochu spirit, both diluted with water, over roughly an hour.
Ha was then breathalyzed, showing a reading of 0.30mg of alcohol per liter of breath, which is double the legal limit of 0.15mg, according to the publication.
Despite feeling physical symptoms like cold hands, increased heart rate, and a flushed face, Ha believed she was capable of driving. This false confidence was also expressed by the driver responsible for the fatal 2006 accident.
Ha's assessment was incorrect. Her co-reporter, Rokuhei Sato, experienced frequent and abrupt changes in speed as Ha drove along a straight path. She managed to navigate through the slalom's bollards but was stopped by the school’s deputy head, Shojiro Kubota, before tackling the S-bend.
Kubota informed Ha that she had driven into a curve at a higher speed post-drinking and even veered into the opposing lane at one point.
“Even though [drinking] impairs the skills people need for driving, such as cognitive capacity, judgment and vehicle manoeuvring ability, the driver assumes they are driving safely – that’s the danger of drink-driving,” Kubota said, according to the Mainichi.
According to Japan’s National Police Agency, drivers who have previously drunk-drove without consequences often develop a false sense of safety, leading to repeated risky behavior.
The agency presented statistics indicating that the likelihood of a fatal accident is seven times higher when the driver has consumed alcohol, compared to when driving sober.
Deputy Chief Yoichi Furukawa of the prefectural police’s traffic division urged people to make sensible choices before consuming alcohol. “We are calling on people to properly manage the risks before drinking, such as not driving to the pub in the first place, on the premise that once they are drunk, they are unable to make normal judgments,” he told the publication.
Source: The Guardian