SADD Educates Community about the Dangers of Distracted Driving
The Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Club taught the student body about the dangers of distracted driving in a new and exciting way this spring. In the past, SADD had a mock car crash at the school, but this year they wanted to have an activity that was a little more hands on.
The club asked each Senior School advisory group to create a 30-second to one minute public service announcement (PSA) on a form of distracted driving, such as eating, texting, or talking on a cell phone. Each video was required to have at least one fact or statistic about distracted driving and a message at the end.
On Friday, April 15, 2016, SADD took over the Senior School morning announcements period to show the PSAs. Mrs. Cristy McCloskey’s advisory won the competition with a video urging students not to text and drive.
On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, SADD rented a virtual reality driving simulator from Ultimate Defensive Driving School, a Pittsburgh-based veteran-owned business. The simulator enabled students to drive in a virtual space while operating the controls of an actual vehicle (steering wheel, turn signals, radio, gas and break pedals). A 360 degree panoramic view of the road and surrounding area was presented to the student driver via virtual reality goggles, and the scenery was computer-generated by virtual reality software. Students experienced many on-the-road scenarios, like drunk driving, texting while driving, road surface changes, adverse weather, and construction zones. With this simulator, the Ultimate Defensive operators were able to put more of an emphasis on defensive driving. At the end of each session, students received a report card telling them how they did and what areas they needed to improve on.
The vehicle was set up outside the Senior School commons by the gazebo. The actual simulator (a computer with programs) was hooked up to a real car that sat on top of sensor pads. Other students could watch what the student driver was seeing as they were driving on a TV placed on top of the car. Sessions took place between 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and each session lasted 10 to 15 minutes. Over 40 students drove the simulator, while many more stood and watched.
