Safety Bug will show high school students the dangers of drunken driving

High school students will have a chance to find out how dangerous drunken driving is when the Safety Bug visits Clayton A. Bouton High School later this month.

The Safety Bug is a specially engineered Volkswagen Bug whose steering and braking systems are altered as teenagers drive through an obstacle course of pylons. The alterations make the car difficult to control, giving teenagers an understanding of how dangerous drunken driving is.

The Safety Bug is part of Lookin’ Out, a driver safety awareness program that promotes safe driving habits and seeks to reduce automobile crashes involving teenage drives. The program was developed by Erie Insurance Group of Erie, Penn.

The Safety Bug will visit the high school Wednesday, May 21. Licensed drivers will be allowed to drive the VW during study halls or physical education classes. Non-licensed drivers can be passengers in the back seat. A trained mentor, who alters the steering and braking systems, sits in the front passenger seat at all times.

The visit is sponsored by the high school’s chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions, which recently received a $2,000 donation from the Bradley Agency, an Albany-based insurance company. The money will be used to further promote safe driving practices.

Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, and alcohol frequently contributes to those crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. A study of teenage drivers killed in car accidents found that 27 percent of males and 15 percent of females had blood alcohol levels of 0.08 or higher, according to the Insurance Institute.

In the photo above, Bernadette Fuller, from the Bradley Agency, presents a check for $2,000 to SADD officers, Principal Mark Diefendorf and Sandra Vorse, SADD adviser.