LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The four-wheel nationwide tour made its way to Jeffersontown High School. The goal, to show students the potential consequences of distracted and impaired driving.
“Of course I’m still pretty new to driving so of course there’s other people that play on their phones and stuff but I try to not play on my phone and try to pay attention,” Aubrie Kueber, senior at Jeffersontown High School said.
Aubrie Keuber and her classmates at Jeffersontown High School got an inside look into distracted driving.
The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety’s Arrive Alive Tour features a virtual reality impaired driving and texting simulator.
“They put on these virtual reality glasses, they get in the car, there’s sensors on everything and they drive it and there’s about 20 or 30 different scenarios we can run them through and basically it’s the game you can’t win and that’s the whole point,” Casey Troyer, tour manager for Unite’s Arrive Alive Tour said.
For many, the simulator was much harder than they thought.
“I had a truck that was coming up next to me and I didn’t pay attention because I had a phone on my left side of my ear and the truck was coming up on my left side so definitely it was harder to pay attention to the cars around me,” Kueber said.
Especially for those who have never been behind the wheel.
“Don’t be on the phone because it’s a lot harder to drive and to try and pay more attention to the road then talk on your phone to all your friends, they can wait,” Nia Stikes, senior at Jeffersontown High School said.
A tour that couldn’t wait for J-Town High School students, as they soon transition to college.
“This is critical for students to be exposed to, knowing the responsibilities that could hit them in the fall on college campuses and what’s going on just in their everyday life,” Jarrad Durham, principal at Jeffersontown High School, said. “But this is everyday life. This doesn’t wait for a special event. This is something that affects every driver, every day.”
An effort to keep both the driver and others on the road safe.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving is the leading factor in most crashes.