'Save A Life' Tour to come to Thiel campus

GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Thiel College students will get an opportunity for some firsthand experience with the devastating effects of drinking and driving -- without taking a single drink.
The National Make A Difference "Save A Life" Tour is coming to campus Wednesday.
The program, which will set up from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Lutheran Heritage Room of the Howard Miller Student Center, uses simulation technology for high-tech alcohol awareness.
The tour, formed in 2002, has taken its message to 870 locations nationwide.
The drinking and driving simulator used by the program is the same state-of-the-art technology used to train police officers to allow participants to experience the dulling effects of alcohol.
It puts them in a totally unscripted environment with a 180-degree field of vision. It features 87 miles of road; random, intelligent traffic; and fully controllable variables for time of day and weather conditions.
Participants start the experience "sober" and the responsiveness of the simulation's controls changes throughout the program to represent virtual levels of impairment.