WHITTIER – More than 300 Frontier High School students watched their peers go directly behind the wheel of an interactive distracted driving simulator, giving them a firsthand look into the devastating impacts of drinking or texting while driving during a Save A Life Tour presentation on Nov. 2.
 
The international Save A Life Tour hosted assemblies throughout the day that exposed students to the deadly consequences of unsafe driving practices and choices. 
 
The program featured a high-impact video showing a re-creation of a distracted driving incident, police response, emergency room scenes, family responses and other footage. Following the video presentation, students had the opportunity to test a drinking-and-driving simulator and a texting-and-driving simulator using an iPhone. 
 
“I thought it was pretty eye-opening because it was a new experience for me,” said student Priscilla Martinez, who tested the drunk driving simulator and ultimately crashed. “I don’t even drive, but it’s crazy to know that people drive like that knowing the possibility that they could ruin people’s lives.” 
 
Students rotated between simulators, at times driving at high speeds, answering text messages every few seconds and attempting to navigate the rules of road without ending up in a collision. 
 
“It felt pretty realistic and made me aware of how I would do in the real world,” said student Ivan Acevedo, who crashed while trying to text and drive on the simulator.
 
“People don’t realize how dangerous texting and driving could be,” student Larry Vasquez added. “It’s not worth it. It can happen anywhere, anytime and it’s important for people to realize that.”
 
The Save A Life Tour is a safe driving awareness program that educates and demonstrates the dangers of distracted driving to schools around the world. 
 
“This is such an important visual and hands-on learning experience that our students can benefit from now,” said Principal Margie Moriarty. “Impaired driving, especially texting while driving, has become increasingly popular over the last several years, and we want our students to know the consequences of such actions early on in their lives. If we can save one life, then it’s worth it.”