MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - When parents send their children off to school each day, they are forced to put their trust in the hands of the drivers who are taking the wheel. Knowing that, the Marana Unified School District decided to give their drivers a high-tech learning experience to keep them sharp and focused with 3-D training simulation, similar to those you normally see when training pilots.
"It just kind of makes you wake-up," said school bus driver Christopher Voltares. "Sometimes, you don't really see how bad or good you're doing, so it just kind of makes you wake-up."
Voltares told KGUN9 that he would recommend this Mobile Bus Driver Program to all drivers. The program has come to Marana once before since it started in 2008. The program is provided at no costs to the districts by a non-profit called The Trust, Inc., also known as The Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, Inc.
These simulations give drivers the chance to deal with a variety of situations dealing with weather, hazards, etc. Program supervisors tell KGUN9 that this type of training allows drivers to receive instant critiques on their performance from instructors, so they can deal with these situations if they come up in real life.
"In real life behind-the-wheel training, we've got a driver in the middle of an active situation," said program supervisor Shanna Bailey. "We can't just stop and say, 'Oh we should have done this' and 'We should have done that,' where we can in the simulator."
Every day, more than 6,000 students ride a Marana school bus to school, making a bus driver's job an incredible responsibility - one that Voltares understands. He said he would much rather learn in the simulator then with his kids in tow.
"Then you can see 'Oh, that will happen if I get a bit too close to it,' Voltares said. "It's real world experience."
Hopefully, with these extra high-tech tools, drivers can try to make sure a mistake in training does not make it on the roads.
