NORTHFIELD — Students at Pioneer Valley Regional School had a new kind of driver’s ed lesson this week: by using a distracted-driving simulator machine, they got to find out how it feels to try to drive while texting.
“It was good for them to have this learning opportunity, instead of doing these things out in the real world,” said Heath Cummings, the school’s resource officer. “They felt like they were set up to fail. But I was like, ‘That’s the point. You’re supposed to get a chance to crash in the simulator instead of out in the real world.’”
The machine is shaped like an arcade racing game. Students go through several scenarios that, to be passed safely, require their full attention. Some only involve normal obstacles of the road, like blind curves and unaware pedestrians. In others, they are asked to change the music on the radio or text a friend.
In one, the driver comes to a left turn at a four-way intersection. Halfway through the turn, another car coming from the opposite direction and going straight, comes through.
“He came out of nowhere,” said 10th-grader Colin Brechensel, 16, who crashed into the oncoming car. The other car technically had the right of way, though.
“Multitasking is pretty challenging,” said Nick Keith, 15, who is in tenth grade. “I knew that, I guess, but experiencing it …”
“I saw scenarios in there that I’ve never experienced, or only experienced once in my life,” said Peter Zscau of the Partridge-Zschau insurance agency in Turners Falls, which sponsored bringing the program to PVRS. “The obstructed view is the one that got me the most, especially when cars are stopped for pedestrians or something and you think you’re clear because they’re stopped, and next thing you know someone pops out from the side.”
Cummings said that he hopes the simulator will help students realize how distracting it can be to use a cell phone while driving. Texting-while-driving incidents are up, he said, but enforcement is difficult.
“I think we even had one accident out here after school got out,” Cummings said. “A kid was leaving the parking lot. I think that involved texting while driving.”