Simulator makes its point
A group of young men wanted to take a spin in the Highway Patrol's Rollover Simulator, which Lance Cpl. Bob Beres had set up on the lawn outside Charleston Southern University's student center Wednesday morning.
"No, I can't let you do that," Beres told them. "It'd kill you."
The contraption is a silver pickup truck cab mounted on a trailer that spins around like a sidewise washing machine. It shows what happens to people without seat belts when they veer off road, overcorrect and start rolling over, a common scenario in fatal accidents.
To make his point, Beres put two unbelted dummies inside and started the roll. The passenger went flying out the window and got stuck under the truck, which kept hammering the body every time the truck rolled over. The driver went out the window, hit its head on the side and crumpled to the ground.
The young men nodded, apparently satisfied, and walked off.
So far this year, 265 people without seat belts have died in car wrecks in the state, Beres said. Many of them would have survived if they had buckled up, he said.
Beres pulled his Rollover Simulator onto campus as part of a school safety fair. He said it would be a good reminder before the Labor Day weekend.
"We want everyone to leave their house, have a good time and get back in the same condition they left in," he said.
He was also stressing the dangers of driving after drinking. South Carolina is second in the nation in the number of alcohol-related fatalities, and drinking was a factor in 46 percent of accidents on state roads, he said.
He was parked next to another display designed to shock and awe visitors. The Department of Health and Environmental Control's "Smoking Stinks" table included a quart jar half full of a yellow liquid labeled phlegm. Health Educator Martha Dunlap said that's how much a chronic smoker coughs up in two weeks.
Another quart jar was half full of an ugly black liquid labeled tar. That's how much tar coats a smoker's lungs in two years, she said.
Smoking is not allowed anywhere on the CSU campus, a Southern Baptist school.
