Bellmore JFK Students Urged to Arrive Alive -

Bellmore JFK Students Urged to Arrive Alive -
Experience Impaired / Distracted Driving Without the Deadly Consequences
Wendy Tepfer – Executive Director

Last Friday, Bellmore’s John F. Kennedy High School students were driving recklessly in the side parking lot of their school, veering here and there, occasionally crashing into parked cars and nearly missing pedestrians. They were all either drunk or distracted.

That is, a computer simulator gave them the sensation that they were driving drunk or distracted.

UNITE Corporation’s Arrive Alive Tour came to John F. Kennedy HS in Bellmore on May 30th and set up a black Jeep whose tires rested on sensor pads that allowed students to simulate driving without leaving their parking space. A street scene was projected before them by a pair of goggles connected to a monitor, which recorded their driving speed and any and all traffic violations, accidents, even vehicular deaths. The goggles simulated either drunken driving or distracted driving; and the students chose their course. The simulator allowed the students to experience, in a controlled environment, the potential consequences of impaired and distracted driving.

The Community Parent Center and the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, in partnership with the Nassau County Traffic Safety Board and State Farm Insurance, teamed up to bring the “Arrive Alive Tour” to John F. Kennedy HS. The Parent Center’s executive director, Wendy Tepfer, the BMCHSD’s Director of Physical Education, Health, Athletics and Driver Education, Saul Lerner and JFK HS Principal, Lorraine Poppe, felt that this was a great educational tool for the students. The simulator allowed the students to experience, in a controlled environment, the potential consequences of impaired and distracted driving.

In addition to the simulator, students were engaged in a number of hands-on activities to demonstrate the dangers of impaired and distracted driving. Wearing “vision impairment goggles”, the students found that simple tasks, like assembling a puzzle, sorting shapes or catching a nerf football, became difficult if not impossible to master. Students also had the opportunity to participate in a “mock” field sobriety test, attempting to walk the line while wearing the goggles.

This event empowered teens to become safer drivers and safe passengers by raising awareness of the dangers of impaired and distracted driving, which in turn, will help save lives and reduce injuries. It was intended to dissuade them from even considering driving while intoxicated or distracted; and reaffirmed that teens should never get into a car with a driver who is driving unsafely.

Teens learned that, unlike a video game or a simulator, when you are driving on our roads and streets, there are NO RESET BUTTONS and NO DO OVERS.