For the first time, this week students could drive while drunk at Canyon High School. Thanks to a new driving simulator, students can also experience other distractions while taking a virtual drive.
“Drive for Your Life” is a driving simulator that allows students to get behind the wheel and into virtual reality. The “passenger” gives the path the driver needs to travel, and the driver takes it from that point. The simulator offers three modes: free drive, distracted and impaired.
According to State Farm Insurance Company studies, in the United States one out of four drivers age 16 to 24 years are involved in a fatal car crash. Drivers 16 to 19 die in wrecks four times as often as older drivers. For the most part, this statistic is as high as it is because beginning drivers fail to recognize the dangers of not driving at their best every second they are behind the wheel. Or maybe they just don’t care. Some may think, “It can’t happen to me this time.”
It can. Even the first time can be the last.
However, students hear that in lecture after lecture from health teachers, driving school instructors, parents. After a while, the adults start to sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Canyon ISD is changing that. Instead of hearing about everything that could go wrong, students can now see for themselves.
Freshman Trevor Macklin demonstrated the program Sept. 15.
“It doesn’t have exact timing,” Macklin said, “but it’s pretty much the same thing, actually. In impaired, you’re ‘drunk,’ so steering isn’t as responsive and the brakes aren’t as strong. I would hit the brake and stop a second later.”
The head of the Education Foundation, Delores Fincher, said she worked as hard as she could to get this program to Canyon and Randall high schools but was not alone in this effort.
“Randi Coetzee, the lady in charge, came across this idea,” Fincher said. “The Education Foundation, which I’m the director of, had some money for it, and the entire board voted to do this. State Farm pooled a little money and paid for what was left.”
Principal Tim Gilliland aided in introducing the program to Canyon ISD.
“We’re hoping to set it out the week of Homecoming and two weeks leading up to Prom,” Gilliland said. “It’ll be open to all students. Unfortunately, you can only have one person at a time. That’s the downside to it.”
The simulator will only be available to use at certain times, however, due to the need for someone to supervise the equipment.
“The problem is having someone to sit by it and take care of it,” Gilliland said. “We’d need a good spot to keep it. We want to take good care of this computer program.”
Fincher said her hope for this program is that students will acknowledge and act against the dangers of distracted and impaired driving.
“I hope that students will see the seriousness of changing the radio, talking, eating while driving– things we think we can do while driving but can’t,” Fincher said. “Even the least little thing can distract while driving.”
Gilliland said he anticipates students experiencing “intoxication” while driving the simulator and choosing to avoid drinking before getting behind the wheel.
“It will allow them to simulate what impaired driving is like,” Gilliland said. “Students need to see how dangerous that is.”
From his own experience with the software, Macklin said he advises looking at the legal aspect of impaired driving.
“When you get into a crash while drunk, you get arrested by the police,” Macklin said. “You get a lot of fines, you go to jail, you get probations. It’ll show teens the consequences of drinking and driving and help them not do it in the future.”
