Driving is a privilege and one we want our students to take seriously. To that end, students in Lisa Chavez’s health classes have been participating in the “Just Drive” Program, a two-day program that educates high school students about safe driving through class discussion and interactive activities. The class discussion reviews the dangerous driving behaviors among younger drivers, emphasizes the importance of seat belt use, describes how to share the roadway safely with other users, and summarizes the Graduated Licensing Laws.  

 

After the discussion, students participated in interactive activities that required them to complete simple tasks while being “impaired” or distracted using the Fatal Vision Four stations were set up in the library that involved using the goggles while trying to complete a task, such as matching shapes and colors while counting backward, catching a certain color ball, walking a straight line, and raising a hand based on if a light is on or off.  These activities helped them to better understand how dangerous it is to be impaired while behind the wheel. Students first tried the tasks without the goggles and then did the same tasks with the goggles on. It was very apparent that the impaired goggle greatly affected their ability to even do the tasks, let alone complete them. The hope is, that this experience will help them make the right choices. 

 

The program is tied to the health curriculum and was conducted by the Traffic Safety Education Program at the Broome County Health Department.