PORTSMOUTH — Logan Quinn was doing just fine. With fellow Portsmouth High senior Will Sullivan riding shotgun, he was deftly navigating a course marked by traffic cones inside the school’s field house as his hands gripped the wheel of a custom-made go-kart.

Then Wes Lemar, one of the district’s resource officers, pushed a switch on a remote control, and that all changed. Suddenly, Quinn struggled to control the cart, which reacted sluggishly to his turning of the wheel. Soon after, he plowed into a pedestrian — a teenage boy carrying a backpack.

Fortunately, the boy was just a cardboard cutout, and Quinn and Sullivan laughed as the undid their seatbelts. 

Despite the fun, however, this program made possible through a partnership between the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition and the Portsmouth Police Department dealt a sobering message about the consequences of drinking and driving.

“I honestly cannot describe it,” said Sullivan, who also took the wheel for a spin before finding himself on a collision course with a child riding a bike with training wheels.

“There was a loss of control …” he began to tell PHS School Resource Officer Amanda Weaver, who spoke with every student after their turn at the wheel.

“ … and delayed reactions,” said Weaver. “All that stuff is what happens when you get behind the wheel after having a drink or other substances.” 

She asked Sullivan what were some options he could take if he decided he was too inebriated to drive. “Get an Uber, or if you’re with your friends, ask someone else to drive,” he said.

“Or call your parents,” Weaver said. “I’m a parent, and I wouldn’t be upset if my child called me and said, ‘I’ve had a couple of drinks and I need a ride home.’ The consequences from your parents are a heck of a lot better than if something happens to you.”

And that’s the message police and PPC were trying to send through the program. “We want you to have fun, but we also want you to be responsible and be safe,” she said.

The PPC, along with the Newport County Prevention Coalition (NCPC) purchased the Simulated Impaired Driving Experience (SIDNE) go-kart, which lets students see what driving’s really like after consuming too much alcohol or other substances. The cart runs normally until someone uses a remote control to send it into “impaired driving” mode, which simulates the delayed reactions and loss of control that an impaired driver would feel.

PPC put up $40,000 for the go-kart, and NCPC contributed about $4,600, said Joan Warren, coordinator for the PPC, adding that police officers went through a training program to use the vehicle.

“Portsmouth High School is the first school to actually utilize it. We’re going to loan it out to other schools and other community organizations to use it — on the island, at first,” said Warren. “The police have been a great community partner with us. They wanted to do what’s right for the community and help people make the right decisions.”

Starts in the classroom

The program began in the classroom before students were sent to the field house. In Ryan Moniz’s health class, Officer Austin Szczepaniak, who graduated from PHS 10 years ago and played football for Moniz, reminded students that it’s not just beer or liquor that can make you too impaired to drive. Cannabis, Xanax, paint through Co2 cans — “That’s a great way to completely ruin your brain in less than 10 seconds,” Szczepaniak said — and other substances can also do the trick.

The students in Moniz’s class were either 17 or 18, and Szczepaniak pointed out how easy it would be for any one of them to run afoul of the law when it came to driving under the influence (DUI). The legal alcohol limit for drivers ages 18 to 21, he said, is just .02.

“That’s like a beer in an hour,” Szczepaniak said.

The consequences for a DUI conviction when you’re underage “is pretty dramatic,” he told students — hundreds to thousands of dollars in fines and lawyers’ fees, “skyrocketing” insurance rates, loss or suspension of your driving license, likely loss of employment, and the potential for a stint in the training school or jail.

Of course, the biggest consequence of drinking and driving is death or severe injury. Szczepaniak said in many cases, the drivers are often unscathed, but the passengers are not.

“I’ve probably lost about 10 friends since I’ve been out of high school to either alcohol, drugs, accidents,” he said. “I have another friend who’s currently incarcerated. He had a DUI in Middletown and he killed the passenger.” 

His friend, he said, drove over 90 mph and flipped his car, ejecting a female passenger who landed on her head. The driver’s blood alcohol was .095 — not overly intoxicated, Szczepaniak said, but perhaps the liquor gave him the confidence to drive fast to impress his friend.

“Now he’s in prison for the next eight years. It completely ruined his life.”

Goggles to make you stumble

Szczepaniak then handed out special goggles — previously purchased by the PPC — that simulated varying degrees of intoxication. One made it feel like your blood alcohol level was .06, while the strongest one went up to a .25.

The students put them on and then stumbled out into the hallway, where they made feeble attempts to walk straight and give each other high-fives. One student said he felt a little nauseous, while another looked for some water.

“Be safe, be smart,” Szczepaniak told them. “Uber is the easiest thing and probably the best invention ever. Or, call your parents. At the end of the day your parents are not going to be mad at you; they just want you safe.”