Driving down the road at 60 mph, the car swerved from lane to lane. The driver tried to regain… Driving down the road at 60 mph, the car swerved from lane to lane. The driver tried to regain control, but the car had a mind of its own.

Making a 90-degree turn, the car jumped the sidewalk and veered through a grassy field. Back on the road, someone called out, “You’re going over 80 mph!” The brakes screeched as the car slowed, but not fast enough. The driver swerved the car around the sport utility vehicle stopped at the intersection and jumped another curb.

An apartment building loomed ahead as the driver unintentionally turned down a side street. Still on the grassy sidewalk, the car headed straight for the back of the building.

A ride home after a night of heavy drinking?

Nope.

Instead of finding themselves wrecked on side streets in Oakland, Pitt students found themselves in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union yesterday afternoon. This opportunity to become shaken and disoriented was courtesy of the “Save a Life Tour!,” brought to campus by the Pitt Program Council.

“This program looked like it would be beneficial to college students,” said Stefanie Odett, PPC executive board director. “With the drunk driving rate being what it is, we’re trying to help people learn the repercussions of drunk driving.”

Students were invited to participate in a drunk driving simulator brought to campus by Edu-tainment. Consisting of the front part of a car — complete with a seat, seatbelt, dashboard, gearshift, turn signal and radio — the simulator put students in the driver’s seat of a drunken car.

Yes, a drunken car.

“The vehicle is getting drunk instead of you,” said Jeremy Shultz of Edu-tainment.

Drivers had three minutes on the course, and, as Shultz reminded them, they were able to drive anywhere they wanted. The longer the simulator ran, the more “drunk” the car became. The ride was over when the car crashed.

Student Government Board President Brian Kelly made it through the entire course without wrecking, despite hitting speeds of more than 70 mph and swerving from lane to lane.

“It was kinda hard,” Kelly said. “The cops didn’t do a very good job.”

Freshman Adey Yilma felt the same loss of control Kelly did.

“It was weird,” Yilma said. “I couldn’t even control the car.”

After completing the course, students were given a realistic-looking Driving Under the Influence citation, which reported how many traffic violations they committed.

At the entrance to the room, Student Health had set up a table about alcohol awareness. The table featured various bottles of satirically named alcohol, including “Whyy? Vodka,” “Drunk Daniel” and “Skirtoffno Twist.” Jason Flatt, the substance abuse prevention specialist for the department, said the bottles were intended to “put a little humor message across.”

Flatt said PPC invited Student Health to participate in the event.

“This is the perfect time of year, around the holidays, to do this,” he said. “We need to be concerned with drinking and driving.

“There is often high-risk drinking in colleges, and things like this help to educate [the students],” he added.

Odett said the timing of the program was deliberate.

“Wednesday night, there will be a craze of going out the first night of Thanksgiving break and getting wasted,” she said. “We just wanted to remind everyone to stay responsible.”