Reading Nostalgia: The people who were ASKED to drink and drive

Numerous women were volunteered to travel to the town to take part in a drink-drive trial, that saw participants have cups of alcohol, then drive a simulator to see how fast their reactions were and if they got through the test unscathed.

Thelma Cooper (left) passed the test

They also drove along a test track to see how impaired they were.

During the news report, it was revealed that the simulator was book for ‘months ahead’, it cost £1m to produce and it was the only one in the country (at the time) of its kind.

The simulator that people took part in (BBC)

One of the volunteers was Peggy Crowley.

After drinking vodka mixed with cream soda, she was asked to ‘drive a car’ in their simulator which was a mimic of the M3 motorway.

Penny was on the legal limit (BBC)

During the exercise, she was given a series of instructions to follow by one of the laboratory’s researchers which included overtaking lorries in the fast lane and indicating back to the original lane she was in.

The lab was booked out for months (BBC)

She was given enough booze to put her on the legal limit at the time, and to her shock, she had learnt that some serious errors were made during her time in the lab.

One of the errors included driving 10 miles on the motorway simulator in second gear at 70pmh.

The car used on the race track (BBC)

Speaking on her experience, Peggy said: “I find that alcohol relaxes me, so with that, I think I drive a bit differently.”

One of the researchers added: “Pharmaceutical manufacturers have a measure of the impairment effect for a new or an existing drug.

The car that Thelma drove in the test (BBC)

“That could be quite important when taking anti-histamines for hay fever or anti-depressants.

“People can take these drugs without any requirement on a limit for their driving ability.”

Instructions were given to try and follow (BBC)

One of the other participants from the experiment was Thelma Cooper.

Many people took part in the experiment (BBC)

Thelma, who drank cream soda (with what she thought was mixed with vodka), was asked to conduct the experiment through their real-life racecourse in which she passed.

It was done to mimic the M3 motorway (BBC)

It was revealed that she did not have any alcohol in her system, but her driving was still impacted due to the thought of potentially having booze Ion her.

She said: “I certainly felt weak at the knees, and I was concentrating a lot harder that what I would usually do when driving.”