From my local paper:

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Fatal Vision

By MEGAN COOLEY
Staff writer

RATHDRUM -- With the help of Rathdrum Police officers, firefighters and teachers, a couple hundred Lakeland High School students drove drunk Monday.

OK, OK. Hang up the phone. Put away the for-sale sign. They weren't really drunk, but they were under the perception of intoxication, thanks to Fatal Vision Goggles.

Juniors and seniors in government, psychology and health classes wore glasses that distort vision in a way that replicates being drunk.

Look too quickly to the side and the world swirls slowly in that direction to catch up. Walk a yellow line and you might end up crawling to stay balanced.
Wearing the goggles, students drove golf carts through an obstacle course in the school's parking lot and got a taste of life through the eyes of a drunken driver.
"It was funky," said Cassie Stover, 18. "I don't ever want to drive drunk. I'd hit everybody on the road."

Rathdrum police officers and firefighters rode with the students, ready to turn off a cart's ignition should an attempt at "drunk driving" go awry.

Students cheered for one another after navigating particularly sharp corners on the course, which was marked by orange traffic cones and chalk arrows.

The cones represented pedestrians, cars and other everyday obstacles. When a cone got crunched under the wheels of a golf cart, which happened with most drivers, classmates groaned.

"Oh, no! Let the man go!" one boy called out to Teea Stutheit, as an cone tumbled under her golf cart.

"Don't ever drink, Cassie! Ever!" another boy shouted to classmate Cassie Stover.
Rathdrum police brought the exercise to Lakeland intending to open their eyes in time for graduation and end-of-school-year parties.

"We want to show them the dangers of drunk driving, especially with graduation coming up," Sgt. Tomi McLean said.
Two out of every five motor vehicle fatalities are alcohol related, according to Rathdrum Police Department information.

Although the mood was light hearted Monday, students said they took the lesson seriously. They were only in middle school when Lakeland senior Jessica Haller was killed by a drunken driver four years ago, but teachers said her death made a lasting impact on the school.

"She was a nice kid with everything going for her," said health teacher Ken Busch. "It had a real effect on the kids because they saw a nice kid who never did anything wrong have to pay the price for someone else's drinking and driving."
Giving kids the chance to experience drunken driving in a safe, hands-on way is more effective than preaching to them, Busch said.

Government teacher Mark Johnson said the goggle exercise is compelling because the kids are feeling some of the side effects of alcohol while they're sober. Although they don't feel drunk, their ability to move at their own will is impaired. And without booze's mind-numbing effects, the kids can remember the lesson.

"When they're drunk, they don't realize what it's like," Johnson said.
Students agreed.

"I think it's a really good experience because it changes your hand-eye coordination all together," said Ray Shute, 18. "It gives you a sense of what it's like."

A 17-year-old boy who asked to remain anonymous admitted knowing the true effects of intoxication and said the goggle exercise was surprisingly similar.
"You realize how dangerous it is to drive drunk," he said. "If I had (been a drunken driver) before this, I wouldn't be afterwards."