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A virtual reality check for texting drivers

Author: Jennifer Brannock Cox

“A Virtual Reality Check for Texting Drivers.” Solutions U, solutionsu.solutionsjournalism.org/stories/a-virtual-reality-check-for-texting-drivers.

The phone pings. A quick glance.

“Where are you?”

That urge of instant gratification.

“Almost there,” I intend to respond.

The blast of a horn. An explosion of glass. The burnt smoke of an airbag eruption. Then, blackness.

Thankfully, I got to experience it all for myself in the safety of my office. But it could have easily been real life, in my car, with my daughter in the back seat.

AT&T’s distracted driving simulator makes all too real the consequences of a seemingly innocuous offense most of us are guilty of — using smartphones while driving. With the help of a Samsung virtual reality headset, the “It Can Wait” app takes participants along for the ride with a worst-case scenario simulation of distracted driving.

In Salisbury, AT&T partnered with Peninsula Regional Medical Center earlier this month to recruit residents at The Centre at Salisbury mall to try the simulation. The virtual reality goggles were used throughout Maryland to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving in recognition of April’s designation as Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Although it is difficult to know exactly how many crashes are the result of texting and driving, the National Safety Council estimated more than 200,000 in 2012. According to research conducted by AT&T, seven in 10 drivers engage in smartphone activities while driving.

“Think about what that means,” said Daniel Langan, director of public affairs for AT&T. “Seven out of every 10 cars on the road have someone checking social media feeds, taking selfies, watching movies.

“We want to do everything we can to make sure people in Maryland and everywhere understand that it can wait.”

“Is it over?”

Young drivers are certainly not the only culprits of distracted driving crashes, but given how connected their lives are to mobile communication, they are one of the groups distracted driving campaigns focus on the most. With the “100 deadliest days” for teen drivers approaching (between Memorial Day and Labor Day), a technological, creative approach to curbing distracted driving could make an impact, said Kari Cheezum, trauma program manager at PRMC.

“It takes about 5 seconds to send or receive a text message,” she said. “At highway speeds, that’s about 300 yards the car travels. That’s a pretty far distance for a driver not to be paying attention.”

As a communication arts professor at Salisbury University, I decided to give my Participatory Journalism class a go with the simulator. I wanted to record their reactions and see whether the message resonated with this targeted age group.

The simulator puts the participant in the driver’s seat, and he/she can look around, exploring the scene and sensing the impending dangers, but is helpless to get the “driver” to pay attention. Participants experience several close calls with the distracted “driver” before ultimately getting T-boned by an approaching car and dying.

“The most impactful part of it was probably dying at the end of the experience,” said Brooke Reese, a junior at Salisbury University. “I don’t think any of us were expecting it.

“I would have never thought we would have such a traumatic end at the end of it.”

Some students laughed off the “driver’s” inability to text without taking his eyes off the road, but Cheezum says they might be fooling themselves to believe that ability exists.

“I think people think they can text without looking, but that’s probably not true,” she said. “We are just living in a society where we are locked into our phones.”

But, she emphasized, my students are not the only ones who think this way.

“It’s not just kids,” she said. “It’s everybody.”

Although students laughed as each of their classmates reacted to the violent imagery, most felt the simulation made an impact. After squirming through her turn with the googles, one student clenched her fists tightly following the “crash” and, traumatized, squeaked out, “Is it over?”

For senior Chantel Walker, the experience brought back memories from a car crash she suffered, making the simulation hard to endure.

“I know how it feels for the glass to be flying and the smoke to be up, and you feel the car breaking down. That blurriness,” she said. “The ‘accident’ brought back that feeling again of being out of control and not knowing what happened.”

What now?

Allowing participants to experience distracted driving through a realistic activity can add impact to the message, Langan said. The virtual reality goggles offer an experience that is novel and fun to most people while conveying the seriousness of the issue.

“Technology has evolved to the point where we have been able to give people as close to a real life look as we can to show what can happen if you take your eyes off the road to look at your phone,” Langan said. “It’s just another way to illustrate the dangers and remind people that no email, post or text is worth taking a life.”

But acknowledging the dangers of distracted driving is just the first step, he said. AT&T has partnered with dozens of organizations to develop programs aimed at curbing the issue.

Langan hopes participants will take the initiative to sign AT&T’s online pledge “to keep your eyes on the road, not your phone.” As of late-April, more than 8 million people elected to take the pledge at http://www.itcanwait.com.

AT&T is also encouraging drivers to download its free DriveMode app, which silences incoming text alerts when in use. The app can turn on automatically when users are traveling at more than 15 miles per hour, and parents with young drivers can track whether the app is being used.

The company is also involved with trying to get legislation passed to enforce penalties on those who text while driving, Langan said.

“It really is a multifaceted effort,” he said. “We have made this a top public safety, public service initiative for the company, because it is so important.”

At PRMC, Cheezum says about 40 percent of all traumas are related to motor vehicle collisions, and she suspects many are caused by distracted driving. Her solution is fairly simple:

“When you are driving, make sure you are paying attention to the road,” she said. “Stay focused.

“Be the leaders, set the examples, spread the awareness, and be the person to make the changes.”

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DMU Timestamp: November 27, 2019 01:26





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