Students get a ‘crash course’ in distracted driving
By Paul Tennant, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
It didn't work. He still crashed.
"Wow" was his reaction when the exercise was over. Wilson said he will take the test to get his learner's permit within the next few weeks.
Once he gets behind the wheel of a real car, he said, he will avoid a practice that has already taken many lives: Texting while driving.
Wilson was among more than 120
When the computer instructed them to start texting, they would do so -- while trying to steer a car traveling at 50 mph.
"Of course not!" said Precious Guerrero, a senior, when asked if she plans to text while driving when she gets her license.
"It was interesting," she said of her simulated driving experience. "I crashed."
Wilson,
Sending or receiving a text message takes a driver's eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving 100 yards, the length of a football field, at 55 mph, blind, according to the
Approximately 660,000 drivers are using cellphones or manipulating electronic devices while driving at any given daylight moment across America, the agency said.
"Despite increased awareness of the dangers of distracted driving, the epidemic shows few signs of slowing down," said
Former Mayor
The state's first prosecution of a defendant accused of texting while driving and causing a death occurred in
Bowley died from his injuries the following
Deveau, now 21, was sentenced to a year in jail. He will not be able to legally drive until he is 33.
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