MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Imagine being blindfolded and driving the length of an entire football field.
As crazy as that sounds, experts say the average text takes four seconds, so that’s what it’s like when drivers take their eyes off the road to text.
WREG got in the driver’s seat and learned just how dangerous distracted driving can be.
Gary Lowry is the Field Insurance Manager with AAA in Memphis.
“Distracted driving accounts for almost 80% of all accidents on the roads,” he said. “It accounts for 11 deaths a day.”
Lowry said research shows seconds make a difference when people glance away from the road and toward their phones.
He explained, “The average text takes four seconds and that means, you’re looking down for four seconds.”
The AAA Memphis office has a distracted driving simulator on hand for the next several weeks.
Lowry has reached out to area schools in hopes of getting teens to sign up to take a quick course.
He gave WREG the first, sneak peak at the simulator which offers drivers first-person realistic views of what happens when they text and drive, or drink and drive.
Lowry explained, “It’s very sophisticated, it looks like it might be a little bit of a cartoon, but it’s not, it reads just like a car.”
WREG gave the simulator a test run.
During the distracted driving course, the user gets constant prompts to text.
There’s audio from a “pretend friend” the driver is supposedly taking home.
The impaired driving course is much more of a challenge.
It’s designed to simulate what it’s like when a driver has been drinking, so reaction time is automatically adjusted.
If the user crashes, they can be taken to jail for failing a sobriety test and sentenced by a judge.
The driver could also be placed into an ambulance or airlifted to a hospital as the course simulates injuries.
Lowry said the point is that even the smallest distraction can make a big difference.
“Nobody’s that good, they’re just not, and everybody thinks they are, ‘oh okay, I’m a good enough driver’ and we’ll prove them wrong.”
The distracted driving simulator course takes roughly 30 minutes.
Teachers or parents interested in having teens take the class should call Lowry at 901-751-4577, ext. 240.
It’s by appointment only.