More than 200 students failed an on-campus sobriety test held last week.

A group representing the Moorpark College Health Center asked, on Nov. 14 and 15 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., students to participate in a balance test featuring “beer goggles,” which are used to emulate the sensation of intoxication. The test requires participants to keep their arms down and walk eight to nine steps, forward and back, heel to toe, as straight as possible.

Just looking through the goggles is not enough to destabilize a person. Attempting to walk is what triggers the sudden lack of stability.

Most students were allowed to cheat by looking down at a line of police tape while normal situations would force the subject to look straight ahead. Indeed, one would have an easier time walking straight with his/her eyes closed.

Liberal Arts student, Cameron Cheyne, was one of the many students at Moorpark College who took the sobriety test and after said, “It was very difficult to do.”

To illustrate just how disastrous drunk driving can be, the test site included the battered remains of an SUV. Little of the vehicle’s history was revealed, other than the fact that it was driven by a former Moorpark College student who did not survive the crash.

Booths were set up around the wreck where attendants handed out pamphlets of information, including the penalties for a first-offence DUI and local emergency numbers.

Many students were amused at the sight of their friends and acquaintances stumbling about the line; several participants fell over without even taking a step. Others had difficulty keeping their arms to their sides or walking the right way – and that’s just the result of a simulated intoxication.

“If this is what being drunk is like, I wouldn’t want to be caught driving under the influence,” Cheyne stated.