Arrive Alive simulation teaches about dangers of distracted driving
Published 9:09 am Thursday, October 30, 2014
Terrance Jauari hit and killed a pedestrian. Micah Bdeh was issued a DWI.
Jauari and Bdeh were two of hundreds of McNeese State University students who participated in the Arrive Alive high-tech simulator, which simulates the dangers of drunken and distracted driving, on campus Wednesday. The Arrive Alive Tour travels around the country visiting high schools, college campuses and community events.
Tyler Herbstreith, team leader for the Arrive Alive Tour, said the simulator experience enables students to see possible consequences of drunken and distracted driving while in a safe, controlled environment. Herbstreith said students get in a real car, put on virtual-reality glasses so they can see the road, and use the gas and brake pedals and steering wheel like they normally would when driving.
Herbstreith said that in the simulation, reaction time is slowed and drivers’ hand-eye coordination is affected so that the car responds as if they are intoxicated. He said that this way students can experience what it would feel like to drink and drive when they are sober. He said the texting and driving simulation is similar except hand-eye coordination isn’t affected.
“This age group has grown up with cellphones by their sides,” he said. “We all grew up knowing that drinking and driving is dangerous, but this is a way to compare the two and show them that texting is actually more dangerous than drunk driving.”
According to Herbstreith, texting causes six times more accidents than drunken driving, and a driver who is texting is 23 times more likely to get into an accident. He said one of the most common driving distractions is cellphone use.
Bdeh, who said he has never received a real DWI, said the drunken-driving simulation was difficult and that it was hard to steer the wheels.
“I was swerving all over the road and wasn’t driving well at all,” Bdeh said. “This taught me that I can’t drive without being fully sober.”
Jauari, who admitted he does sometimes text while driving, said the experience made him think hard about what could happen. “I could really kill somebody and get least at 10 years in prison,” he said. “This was an eye-opener.”
