Orange cones fly by. The car lurches forward, the driver trying in vain to keep the car in control, sometimes seeing double.

Driving through the maze seems as impossible as winning the Indy 500. Has this student been drinking?

No, only wearing drunk goggles.

For Alcohol Awareness Week, University Police and the University Health Center invited students to strap on the vision-distorting goggles and take control of a golf cart on McKeldin Mall yesterday afternoon. Participants were put through an obstacle course of orange cones and a set of tests administered to suspected drunken drivers.

“This is a prevention measure by putting students behind the wheel in a safe capacity,” said officer Mark Wittkopp. “It makes them aware of the testing they’re going to have to go through” should they be pulled over under the influence.

Students stumbled around the sidewalk, falling to the ground when asked to balance on one foot. The cone course was even worse.

“You killed that guy!” exclaimed a student, laughing as the “impaired” driver plowed through an unsuspecting cone.

“I thought it was a good program,” said freshman civil engineering major Alyssa Apolonio. “I think it’s kind of like, ‘Your sight really is impaired!’ I saw this one girl put on the goggles and immediately fall over.”

Alcohol Awareness Week is a national program instituted in the early ’90s, said Kendra Smoak, Substance Abuse coordinator for the health center. In addition to yesterday’s demonstration, the health center will place flags in front of the health center to represent the number of students injured each year due to alcohol. They will also run a program in which students measure standard drink sizes using Solo cups, to test their ability to judge how much they drink.

The golf cart course is meant to illustrate how difficult driving under the influence really is, though Smoak cautions students going through the course that only vision is impaired with the goggles while the whole body is impaired while drunk.

“We want to heighten awareness,” said Wittkopp. “If we can put this in more of a cordial, jovial way and make it fun, we can educate and warn in more of a fun setting.”

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