Impaired driving was a factor in 723 highway fatalities between 2014 and 2018, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Office of Highway Safety. A May study from Zutobi, a drivers’ educational organization, also put Kentucky as the state with the highest rate of teenage fatalities for the third consecutive year, with 72.4 deaths per 100,000 drivers.
The Arrive Alive Tour is trying to change that. The national education program recently visited Bellevue High School with its impaired driving simulator, an SUV modified with a virtual reality program that simulates impaired and distracted driving.
“We educate and travel the country in drunk, distracted and impaired driving in a controlled environment,” said Arrive Alive’s Traveling Educator Shaquille Hill, who ran the sessions at Bellevue High School. “So we give all the physicalness of driving a real vehicle but putting in the effects of the influence through the computer–just basically educating kids to make smarter decisions, teaching them consequences and that things can happen in a split second, sober or under the influence.”
Hill delivered brief remarks about the facts of impaired driving to groups of students, several of whom then volunteered to try the simulator.
The SUV is rigged to a device that allows the person in the driver’s seat to turn the wheel while wearing a VR headset, which mimics the effects of both alcohol and THC impairment by obscuring the driver’s vision and delaying the mechanical responses of the vehicle. Students who tried the simulator then filled out a survey about their experience.
Students discussed their experience with the simulator after they tried it.
“It was hard,” said student Jordan Watson. Watson can’t yet drive in real life, but he commented that it was difficult to see in the simulation. Watson’s simulation ended when he failed to avoid another car in the simulation, crashing into it when it pulled out in front of him.
Jamaurion Lowe, who also crashed in his simulation, talked about how the simulation mimicked impaired driving by obscuring his vision.
“It’s very blurry in your eyes,” Lowe said. “You can’t see, so it’s just like you’re steering and everything. You only see the cars when you’re like really close to them.”
Arrive Alive had come to the school about two years ago, said Danielle Carr, the coordinator of the high school’s youth services center.
“I just thought it was a great program because, to me, it’s something different than just getting talked at, you know, and kind of getting lectured about it,” Carr said. “They can kind of experience it a little bit, sit in an actual car. Of course, it’s still a simulation, but I think it gives them a little more real feel, and then for other students being able to watch on the outside and see what that might look like.”
When asked if he had any advice or recommendations for avoiding impaired driving during the upcoming holiday, Hill said, “Be responsible: Uber, Lyft, there’s so many things you can do. Call a friend, call your mom. Be responsible if you’re if you’re going to partake.”
Check out some facts related to impaired driving below and learn more about impaired driving laws in Kentucky at the Office of Highway Safety’s dedicated webpage.