LOGANSPORT – Half of high school students in the nation age 16 or
older text or email while driving. Some Logansport High School students
took behind the wheel Wednesday to simulate that distracted driving.
The simulator, provided by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, is a computer program that takes the driver through a city with many distractions, including deer crossing, pedestrians crossing and an uncooperative passenger who wants the driver to text and call while driving.
Retired Logansport Police Lt. Cathi Collins and Cass County Sheriff Maj. Jill Rife teamed up to bring the simulator to Logansport High and Lewis Cass Junior-Senior High last week.
Collins said she was first contacted by Dawn Fisher of Fisher Funeral Chapel, since her daughter, Sarah Fisher, wanted to bring a simulator to the schools.
Collins said Logansport police haven’t issued any texting and driving tickets, as a law went into effect in 2011 banning texting and driving in the state. But Collins said it’s definitely a distraction to drivers.
“You can’t drive down the street without seeing someone with a phone,” Collins told the Pharos Tribune. “It’s more distracted driving than it is necessarily texting and driving.”
She added that many people also talk on the phone, fix their hair, put on makeup or eat and drink while driving.
The simulator program had a steering wheel controller with buttons to check to the right and left as well as turn signals.
The passenger asked the driver to call her brother, who didn’t answer, and so she then asked the driver to text the word “hello.”
The students then had to make the call and text while trying to navigate the roads and keep the appropriate speed. Junior Ryan Haney said it was easy to get distracted on the simulator.
“Merging on the highway while trying to text him hello is very difficult,” Ryan said.
Ryan, who just got his license in September, said the simulator wasn’t as realistic because the steering wheel was harder to turn than a car. Cameron Dibble, senior, agreed.
“It was really sensitive, a lot more sensitive than an actual car,” Cameron said, “but the whole point of it, for texting and driving and how hard it is to look at your phone and the road, that’s the realistic part of it.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 660,000 drivers are using a cellphone while driving at any moment. Cameron, who has been driving for almost two years, said there were times in the simulation when he was looking too much at the phone than the road.
The safety administration also states that the average text is read in 4.6 seconds, which doesn’t include time to respond to the message.
If a person drives at 55 mph, then five seconds of driving is equal to 100 yards, so a driver would look at their phone instead of on the road for about the length of a football field.
Matt Jones, Logansport High School principal, said teenagers texting while driving, as well as people of all ages, is an epidemic.
“There’s no doubt that texting and driving is a big problem in our society and people are way too tempted to look down at their phone and it’s very dangerous,” Jones said. “And so the more that we can do as a school to promote not to text and drive, the better for our young drivers.”
Collins took the simulator to Logansport High on Nov. 14 and Lewis Cass on Monday, with 90 total students participating those days. The simulator was at Caston High School on Thursday.
Ryan added that it’s easy for anyone to get distracted while driving, so it’s important to stick to the basics.
“Keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” he said.
The simulator, provided by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, is a computer program that takes the driver through a city with many distractions, including deer crossing, pedestrians crossing and an uncooperative passenger who wants the driver to text and call while driving.
Retired Logansport Police Lt. Cathi Collins and Cass County Sheriff Maj. Jill Rife teamed up to bring the simulator to Logansport High and Lewis Cass Junior-Senior High last week.
Collins said she was first contacted by Dawn Fisher of Fisher Funeral Chapel, since her daughter, Sarah Fisher, wanted to bring a simulator to the schools.
Collins said Logansport police haven’t issued any texting and driving tickets, as a law went into effect in 2011 banning texting and driving in the state. But Collins said it’s definitely a distraction to drivers.
“You can’t drive down the street without seeing someone with a phone,” Collins told the Pharos Tribune. “It’s more distracted driving than it is necessarily texting and driving.”
She added that many people also talk on the phone, fix their hair, put on makeup or eat and drink while driving.
The simulator program had a steering wheel controller with buttons to check to the right and left as well as turn signals.
The passenger asked the driver to call her brother, who didn’t answer, and so she then asked the driver to text the word “hello.”
The students then had to make the call and text while trying to navigate the roads and keep the appropriate speed. Junior Ryan Haney said it was easy to get distracted on the simulator.
“Merging on the highway while trying to text him hello is very difficult,” Ryan said.
Ryan, who just got his license in September, said the simulator wasn’t as realistic because the steering wheel was harder to turn than a car. Cameron Dibble, senior, agreed.
“It was really sensitive, a lot more sensitive than an actual car,” Cameron said, “but the whole point of it, for texting and driving and how hard it is to look at your phone and the road, that’s the realistic part of it.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 660,000 drivers are using a cellphone while driving at any moment. Cameron, who has been driving for almost two years, said there were times in the simulation when he was looking too much at the phone than the road.
The safety administration also states that the average text is read in 4.6 seconds, which doesn’t include time to respond to the message.
If a person drives at 55 mph, then five seconds of driving is equal to 100 yards, so a driver would look at their phone instead of on the road for about the length of a football field.
Matt Jones, Logansport High School principal, said teenagers texting while driving, as well as people of all ages, is an epidemic.
“There’s no doubt that texting and driving is a big problem in our society and people are way too tempted to look down at their phone and it’s very dangerous,” Jones said. “And so the more that we can do as a school to promote not to text and drive, the better for our young drivers.”
Collins took the simulator to Logansport High on Nov. 14 and Lewis Cass on Monday, with 90 total students participating those days. The simulator was at Caston High School on Thursday.
Ryan added that it’s easy for anyone to get distracted while driving, so it’s important to stick to the basics.
“Keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” he said.
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