Cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year and 11 teens die every day as a result of texting while driving., according to The National Safety Council.
Students at Mountain View High School got a chance to experience first-hand how distracted and impaired driving can affect the rest of their lives.
UNITE's Arrive Alive Tour program uses a high-tech simulator, and impact video to educate teenagers about the dangers of texting and driving and intoxicated driving. Arrive Alive's simulator allows students who participate to experience the possible consequences of distracted and drunk driving in a safe environment.
The program puts students behind the wheel and tests them on their driving skills while wearing a simulator, giving students a sense of the dangers. The hope is for the hands-on experience to serve as a major reality check for teen drivers.
One of the most well-known driving distractions is cell phone use. The CTIA - The Wireless Association reports nearly 90 percent of all Americans have a cell phone. Drivers under 20 years old have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The lack of driving experience can contribute to misjudgments if they become distracted.
According to recent reports, Arrive Alive gets teen drivers thinking and it gets the conversation going. The overall goal is for the simulator to get change driver's behavior.
Nearly one-third of all traffic deaths involve alcohol-impaired drivers. Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash. On average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime. In 2014, the highest percentage of drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes were in the age range of 21 to 24. Every day, people drive drunk more than 300,000 times. However, only about 3,200 of those people are arrested.
