EL PASO, Tx (KVIA)–The Texas Department of Transportation held its final \u201cDrive Sober. No Regrets.\u201d holiday drunk driving prevention event of the season, highlighting the dangers of impaired driving through hands-on activities and personal testimonials.<\/p>\n
Drunk driving remains a major issue in Texas, particularly during the holidays. In 2024, more than 2,000 crashes statewide were linked to alcohol impairment, resulting in 96 deaths and 201 serious injuries according to TxDOT.<\/p>\n
This holiday season, TxDOT partnered with Walmart to host a vintage-style carnival dubbed the \u201cDWI Not So Funhouse.\u201d The interactive setup was designed to show how alcohol affect coordination, reaction time and decision-making.<\/p>\n
One station featured a driving simulator paired with impairment goggles. Participants navigated traffic scenarios while experiencing delayed reactions and slowed thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re using the simulator with the drunk driving goggles, it shows how your ability slows down,\u201d Stephanie Carbajal- Atilano, a TxDOT representative said. \u201cYour thought process slows, your reaction time slows, and you\u2019re more likely to crash.\u201d<\/p>\n
An attendee said the challenge became clear once traffic increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the beginning it was fun because there weren\u2019t cars,\u201d the attendee said. \u201cBut once there were more cars, it became very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another station challenged participants to shoot basketballs while wearing impairment goggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the goggles it was easy,\u201d one participant said. \u201cBut with them on, everything was moving, so it was hard to even target the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event also included a \u201cWheel of Misfortune,\u201d where participants spun for consequences such as jail time or costly fines.<\/p>\n
Additional stations, including cornhole and testimonial displays featuring firsthand accounts from families affected by drunk driving and from offenders who faced its consequences.<\/p>\n
While the holiday campaign has ended, officials emphasized the message remains the same year-round, don\u2019t drink and drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Tx (KVIA)–The Texas Department of Transportation held its final \u201cDrive Sober. No Regrets.\u201d holiday drunk driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-96999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}