Eau Claire High School takes creative approach to driving safety before prom season

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - It’s prom season in the Midlands — and making sure students celebrate safely is a top priority for police and school officials.

Students at Eau Claire High School had a chance to simulate the dangers of driving while impaired or distracted on Thursday. For many, it was a reminder of how making good choices before getting behind the wheel can save lives.

According to the state department of insurance, there are 2 crashes every hour involving a distracted driver in South Carolina — many of those involve teens.

The Southeastern Chapter of the National Safety Council (SCNSC), State Farm and the Columbia Police Department (CPD) joined forces to provide three different scenarios for students. The first, a distracted driving simulation using virtual reality to give drivers a look at how small distractions can impact not only you but others on the road.

Melissa Reck the director of traffic safety SCNSC explained the simulator.

“We have our distracted driving simulator which is a virtual reality simulator with a Bluetooth sensor on the gas, the break and the steering,” she said. “It allows us to put the students in a scenario and then there may be a hazard built into that scenario or we may introduce that hazard by having them take out their phone or something like that ... then they can see how that distraction effects their ability to stop in time or deal with other things in their environment.”

According to state Department of Insurance, a teen driver is involved in a collision resulting in death or injury every 1.4 hours. Student, Janala Ackerman, said she quickly learned how distractions on the road and how other drivers around her contributed to her own crash in the simulator.

“Cars come out of nowhere, trucks will be backing out of nowhere, and personally you just need to be aware of your surroundings,” she said. “Make sure, please slow down. Thats what I need to do, slow down because I hit a truck.”

The second simulator involved a golf cart and impairment goggles.

This showed the students how driving under the influence can impact their vision and sense of direction.

Students drove the golf cart through a course made out of traffic cones. Many of the students went off course or hit multiple cones during their drive.

This mimicked the visual impairments of driving under the influence and showed students what unsafe decisions can lead to when you get behind the wheel.

Lastly students were joined by Columbia police to learn how to handle a traffic stop because students in high school are new to driving.

CPD told WIS this is the best way to simulate the situation and give students the opportunity to ask questions and ease nerves.

Principal Ekemam Montgomery said some students have never been pulled over so this simulation ensures they are prepared in the event that they are.

“We want to make sure that when you stop for a traffic stop that you know what to do,” he said. “Just being prepared and how sometimes if your scared and acting a little funny sometimes it can send the wrong message so we want to make sure students know what to do in those situations.”

Reck told WIS there’s an increase in distracted driving incidents around prom season and during warm months.

She said always consider not just yourself, but others around you when you get behind the wheel.

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