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Municipal Courts Recognizes Alcohol Awareness, Distracted Driving Month

April 20, 2017 -- The City of Houston Municipal Courts Department will host the Texas A&M AgriLife Watch Ur BAC DWI Simulator at the Herbert W. Gee Municipal Courthouse located in Downtown Houston on Thursday, April 20, 2017, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in observance of April as both Alcohol Awareness and Distracted Driving Month. The public is encouraged to visit the courthouse to participate in this free event.

“This public safety program is designed to educate drivers about the effects of impaired driving, as well as better understand the dangers and consequences of distracted driving,” stated the Honorable J. Elaine Marshall, Director and Presiding Judge of the Municipal Courts Department.

TheTexas A&M AgriLife Watch Ur BAC DWI Simulator is a free, grant-funded program available through Texas AgriLife Extension Service.  It is specifically designed to teach Texans about the dangers of driving while intoxicated.  A driving simulator equipped with a steering wheel, gas pedal and brake will allow a person to simulate the dangers of driving intoxicated in a safe a video game atmosphere, that offers drivers obstacles and hazards to simulate those that one might encounter all while driving under the influence of alcohol.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.), and HPD Traffic Enforcement DWI Taskforce will be in attendance with Fatal Vision© goggles to further duplicate the effect of alcohol on one’s vision and mimic the impairment of being drunk while the person remains safely onsite at the courthouse.

The program display and simulator will be set up in the first floor lobby of the Herbert W. Gee Municipal Courthouse at 1400 Lubbock, along with representatives from the Municipal Courts Department Juvenile Case Manager Program.

For more information about the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Passenger Safety Program, call 979-862-4658.  For more information about the City of Houston Municipal Courts, visit their website at www.houstontx.gov/courts.