During the course of the past few weeks, health teacher Adam Heroth has been educating his high school students on the adverse health effects of various types of drugs. He has recently started a unit in “Alcohol Awareness” and the effects alcohol has on the body. As part of his curriculum, Mr. Heroth has allowed Trooper Harold Wittner to come into his high school classes week to speak with students about what they have learned.

Trooper Wittner brought “Fatal Vision” goggles with him. The goggles allow the students to experience the effects of being impaired, while remaining in a safe environment. Trooper Wittner seeks volunteers from the class to perform an easy task, like playing catch with a chalkboard eraser. After tossing the eraser back and forth a few times, Trooper Wittner points out to the class the ease in which the student is able to perform the simple task, and how the student is able to make fine tuned hand-eye coordinated movements to ensure the accuracy of catching or throwing. However, when the student puts on the Fatal Vision goggles and repeats the same task again, this simple task in not so simple. This allows all of the students in the class to make a side-by-side comparison of the same task and see the subtle effects of the impairment.

The students are surprised at how the goggles impair the hand-eye coordination and their inability to judge where the object is, in relationship to where they are.

“I explain to the kids they are going from being stone cold sober, to being instantly impaired and back to sober, with putting on and taking off the goggles. Because the brain is such a magnificent organ, it is able to make some minor adjustments, with low levels or dosages of alcohol or drugs. As the alcohol or drug levels increase, the brain’s ability to compensate is starting to be overwhelmed, and the subtle effects of the drugs or alcohol start to become evident,” said Trooper Wittner.

“For the person who has taken the drugs or alcohol, the subtle effects on the body and their coordination are difficult to realize. However, to the trained eye, they are very noticeable,” he said.

For another health class, Trooper Wittner was able to bring the “Rollover” Simulator. The “Rollover” is the cab of a pick-up truck mounted on a trailer. The cab contains an adult-size dummy, and two child-size dummies, and the cab portion spins on an axel.

The first time the cab spins, none of the dummies are wearing seatbelts or are in a car seat. The students can observe the violent tumbling, the partial ejection and the full ejection that occurs during this simulated crash.

The second time the cab spins, the children are properly restrained but the adult is not. The students can observe, during the violent tumbling occurring inside the cab, the unrestrained adult collides with the children each time the vehicle would rollover. It is this collision between the adult and child, where the “safely” restrained child becomes injured.

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