Orcutt Academy students try to ‘Arrive Alive’ in educational driving simulator

“I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was,” said participant Jordan Huizenga. Like many other students, Jordan received a mock citation for his questionable driving performance. “When you look down and you look back up, boom, there’s a corner. But when you looked down at first, there was no corner — it was just straight. You just don’t know what to expect.”

According to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration report released last March, 2,610 teens between 15 and 19 years old were killed in motor vehicle crashes during 2016. Ten percent, or 263, of the fatalities for drivers in that age range involved distracted driving.

Grace Howard, a freshman, said it was hard for her to keep the truck steady when driving under the simulated effects of marijuana consumption. Her head felt heavy and vision was shaky, prompting her to swerve and drive off the paved road before colliding into a wall.

“I didn’t expect it to be as hard,” she said. “It was really different when I had to do it.”

Aten said she hopes students will take away the idea that “driving is a skill” students need to take seriously.

“We view it as kind of a passive activity,” she added, “but we see situations like this on the road every single day. Driving distracted or impaired is going to increase your chances of being in a motor vehicle collision.”