Bartlett High students get crash course on distracted driving
How do you drive home the dangers of distracted driving to teens?
Not through a lecture, but an interactive simulator, Hanover Park police say.
Bartlett High School students gave the machine (essentially a monitor, steering wheel and pedals) a test run Friday. It simulates a variety of risky behaviors - impaired driving, texting on the road, blaring the radio - and shows the consequences. For certain infractions, a judge flashes across the monitor, taking away the driver's license.
Police were trained how to steer kids through the gadget.
"It's engaging," Hanover Park Deputy Police Chief Andy Johnson said. "It plays a lot like a video game, which helps with the appeal for kids."
Earlier this week, more than 150 students at Schaumburg and Lake Park high schools used the simulator or watched their friends, Johnson said.
The lessons grew out of a coalition formed by police earlier this year. The volunteer task force - made up of educators, law enforcement and child advocates, among others - is trying to become the fourth Illinois town to join the Safe Communities America network, run by the National Safety Council.
Other suburbs who have earned the distinction have organized self-defense classes or installed defibrillators in public areas.
The simulator was an obvious event for April, or the council's Distracted Driving Awareness Month.