The Miller Place High School recently hosted an interactive driver-safety workshop in an effort to promote safe driving habits among students. The International Save a Life Tour is a comprehensive, high-impact, safe-driving awareness program offered to high school students throughout the country. Miller Place’s seniors learned about the risks of being impaired and distracted behind the wheel using interactive, virtual-reality technology.
“As upperclassmen in the District enter the world of driving, it’s essential to inform them of the immense responsibility that comes with having a driver’s license,” said Dr. Marianne Cartisano, Superintendent of Miller Place School District. “Each year we have partnered with the International Save a Life Tour, there has been a lasting impact on our students.
One of the workshop’s main features is a high-tech driver’s-seat simulator, which mimics the impairments of having a high blood alcohol content. The simulator makes clear to students the dangers of driving impaired and how impaired driving can lead to poor decisions which then lead to crashes, injuries and sometimes death. Students experienced how the brakes and steering wheel “lag” as blood-alcohol levels increase. The simulator also played out how alcohol impacts reaction time and stopping, turning and accelerating. In an effort to promote behavioral changes, students participated in pre and post surveys about distracted driving, and received wristbands after pledging to drive safely.
The International Save a Life Tour is one of the most advanced, high-impact Safe Driving Awareness programs in the United States. Students all over the world participate in this program, gaining a realistic and sobering perspective on the dangers of driving while impaired or distracted.
For more information about the Miller Place School District, please visit the District’s website at www.millerplace.k12.ny.us.
