Arrive Alive tour teaches dangers of distracted driving

Dance teacher Karl Kuehn attempts Arrive Alive’s impaired driving simulation. The tour visits school campuses and other locations to spread awareness of how dangerous distracted driving can be.

by Ryan Guan, Executive News Editor

The Arrive Alive tour, an organization that brings simulations and information about distracted driving to the likes of school campuses, visited the upper school today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Students and faculty could simulate driving on courses such as a city street or a mountainside road while trying to not crash due to impairment from alcohol use or texting while driving. Emma Li (11) tried the simulator during lunch and after school.

“When you’re driving and texting, you kind of don’t realize what was going on,” Emma, who is currently in driver’s education, said. “You think you were driving perfectly, you don’t need to look at the road, and then when you look at the replay, you’re swerving around and that’s dangerous.”

Jeffrey Bateman, who has worked with Arrive Alive for six months and helped supervise today’s event, sees the tour as a way to help spread awareness of distracted driving.

“A felony stays on your record. That stuff is life-altering,” Bateman said. “Our goal is to change one person’s life in some way, each event. I see people thinking about it; I see it changing people’s lives.”