Texting and Driving Simulator at Thurston High School in Oregon

Springfield, Oregon, was the site for the texting and driving simulator from the Arrive Alive Tour this week. Students from the high school were able to experience first-hand how distracted driving and drunk driving can affect the rest of your life. This is crucial at such a young age, which is why our texting and driving simulator is a great program to bring to high schools.

Texting and Driving Simulator

For our distracted driving program, students get behind the wheel of an actual Jeep. They are tested on their driving skills while wearing virtual reality goggled. This gives them the sense of the potential consequences of distracted and impaired driving. It is getting that hands-on feel to texting and driving, but without the dangerous conditions.

A Reality Check

During this event, KVAL news station attended to work on a story. They spoke with Cody Dean, a student at Thurston High School, who said it was a major reality check. Dean said, “I think for them to be able to put you in the driver seat and actually let you show what happens. It’s a good experience, and it might open kids’ eyes a little more than just having teachers and students talk about experience and see how it has happened.”

Citations and Tour

After going through the texting and driving simulator, students were given citations. These let the students know the possible consequences of texting and driving. Any road laws broken during the simulations are written on the citation. Kent Tiedman, a road crew member for the Arrive Alive Tour, said, “If you are going 55 miles per hour, you go the length of a football field in six seconds, and they say it takes about 4.5 seconds just to take your phone out and read a text. So a lot of things can happen in that amount of space when you are not paying attention to the road.”

The Arrive Alive Tour wrapped things up in the Pacific Northwest with this visit to Thurston High School. The next stop is the Bay Area, so keep an eye out.