GHS students get crash course in distracted driving

Tuesday, October 10, 2017
After looking down at the cracked screen of her phone, Greencastle student Morgan Negley will soon look up to find the virtual windshield of her car in even worse shape. Sponsored by State Farm Insurance, the PEERS Foundation brought its distracted driving simulator to GHS on Monday.
Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

With advice such as “now send a couple texts” or “you’re going to want to check Twitter,” Jake Guy hardly seems like the kind of person who should be instructing student drivers.

Yet there he was on Monday at Greencastle High School, leading dozens of students through a driving simulator, all while keeping their eyes and minds on their phones as much as the virtual roads in front of them.

Of course, Guy and Heather Padgett of the PEERS Foundation weren’t at GHS to teach students how to text and drive, but simulating for them the dangers of distracted driving.

Sponsored by State Farm Insurance, the duo from PEERS has been criss-crossing Indiana in recent weeks, taking students through the distracted driving simulator and showing them how quickly a dangerous accident can happen.

The program is a driving simulation in which PEERS equips a real car with sensors on the gas, brakes and steering. Then the students wear virtual reality glasses and drive through a simulated course while trying to text and drive.

Students were not limited to their own time behind the wheel. A television also gave them a look both at what their classmates were doing behind the wheel as well as what they were seeing.

Each time a driver crashed, a spiderweb of cracks spread across the screen and the simulation was over.

The results were universal failure, even for adults that attempt the course.

“I flunked it,” local State Farm agent Brad Tucker admitted. “I hit the pizza guy.”

Tucker wasn’t the only State Farm agent on the scene, as he was joined by Heather Taylor, representing her agency, and Heather Gibbons, representing Therese Cunningham State Farm.

Pointing out that distracted driving is a problem for adults as well as teens, Taylor remarked that it’s too bad the program isn’t available for adults as well.

Padgett replied that PEERS can set up the simulator for adults as well as students.

PEERS is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 that seeks to empower young people with the knowledge necessary to building healthy, successful lives by using innovative and interactive learning interventions. Learn more about PEERS at peersfoundation.org.

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  • wonderful program - a LOT of adults need this.

    -- Posted by small town fan on Wed, Oct 11, 2017, at 8:27 AM
  • Why didn't the esteemed writer tell what "PEERS" means?

    Any first year English Composition college student knows when and how to use acronyms.

    -- Posted by donantonioelsabio on Wed, Oct 11, 2017, at 10:56 AM
    Response by Jared Jernagan, Assistant Editor, Greencastle Banner-Graphic:
    Esteemed writer here.

    I searched the PEERS website and literature and found no reference to it being an acronym. Believe me, I tried. It appears that, much like the the "National Association of REALTORS®" and so many online commenters who apparently want it to appear that THEY ARE SHOUTING, these guys are just fans of CAPITAL LETTERS.

    I do, however, appreciate seeing a comment from a reader who had the same thought that I did.

  • *

    @donantonioelsabio - Unless it's a different organization, the PEERS foundation appears to be a non-profit organization meant to, and I quote, "empower young people with the knowledge necessary to building healthy, successful lives by using innovative and interactive learning interventions." It was founded in 2007 and sounds like it's some group trying to use emerging technologies to facilitate common sense.

    See http://peersfoundation.org/peers-foundation.html for more.

    -- Posted by DouglasQuaid on Wed, Oct 11, 2017, at 12:17 PM
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