Students at safety expo see effects of drinking

Tyler Wirsu is a Harlem High School baseball player, but the 16-year-old junior dropped a ball lobbed to him from about 20 feet away Monday.

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The blame for the miss comes from a pair of goggles Tyler was wearing that simulate a 0.08 blood alcohol level.

The goggles were just one of numerous devices on display during an Operation Drive Smart Expo, held Monday at Harlem High.

"You see double," Tyler said.

Football player Shane Morgan, 16, also fumbled the tossed ball.

"It's bad," Shane, a junior, said of trying to focus through the goggles. "Your perception of distance is completely dumb."

Both students participated in one of the many stations at the expo, put on by the Duluth (Ga.) Police Department through a Governor's Office of Highway Safety grant.

The expo is designed to impress driving safety on teen drivers.

Stations included the DUI golf car, driven by students wearing the goggles, and a rollover simulator, showing what happens when the driver of a rolling vehicle isn't wearing a seat belt.

On March 4, Greenbrier High School senior Joe Womack Jr., 17, died after being thrown from his Jeep Grand Cherokee, which ran off the side of Hardy McManus Road and flipped several times.

He wasn't wearing a seat belt, and police think speed contributed to the wreck.

Duluth officers stressed the importance of keeping speeds down, wearing seat belts, and not drinking and driving -- especially now that the prom and graduation seasons are coming up.

"It is poor choices," Sgt. Stephen Daniels said of those who can destroy families, including their own, by driving under the influence. "That's all it is. You make a bad choice by drinking. One good choice makes up for that by not driving. ... It is all about good decisions."

Representatives from area law enforcement and first responding agencies participated in the expo, including the Harlem Department of Public Safety, Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue, Columbia County Sheriff's Office and Georgia State Patrol.

Columbia County Juvenile Court Probation Officer Kari Poss, who oversees juvenile traffic court, showed students a poster with the names and photos of 11 teens killed on Columbia County roads.

"I hope it makes an impact," she said.

Reach Valerie Rowell at (706) 868-1222, ext. 110, or valerie.rowell@augustachronicle.com.