Dangers of distracted driving highlighted at Yeager Airport

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — We’ve heard it over and over again: “Put down your phones while driving.” But, sometimes, seeing what can happen may make a difference.

On Friday, a distracted driving simulator was at the Charleston’s Yeager Airport to show the public the dangers of texting while behind the wheel. Members of law enforcement were also present to give personal testimony about the dangers of texting and driving.

State Police Sergeant L.T. Goldie said there are a lot of similarities between people driving under the influence of alcohol and those who drive distracted.

“Texting and driving looks just like a DUI,” Goldie said. “When you get behind a vehicle and they are slowing down, speeding up, weaving in and out of lanes, even going off the roadway and into the median. It looks just like a DUI.”

One out of four accidents in the United States are caused by texting and driving, according to national statistics.

Joe Crawford, Yeager Airport chief of police, was there to try the simulator out for himself.

Crawford said it was interesting to see what can lead to the kinds of wrecks they get called to daily.

“A lot of the times we only see the aftermath,” Crawford said. “You don’t really get a grasp of actually how it happened, you pretty much know what happened, but this just reinforces that you can’t text and drive safely.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 3,477 people were killed and 391,000 were injured in 2015 alone due to distracted driving.

The distracted driving simulator was brought to Yeager Airport by AT&T as part of the company’s “It Can Wait” program, which asks drivers to sign a pledge not to use their phones while driving.

Andy Feeney, AT&T’s regional vice president for external affairs in West Virginia, said he believed the simulator was an invaluable learning tool.

“This will show you that just by glancing down for five seconds those vehicles 100 yards away can instantly be in front of you,” Feeney said. “This just shows how dangerous it is to text and drive. No text message is worth a life. We all should be responsible and put our phones away while we are driving.”

Mike Plante, Yeager Airport’s public information officer, said although distracted driving wasn’t a problem in the sky, the airport was a great place to hold this event.

“We have people that drive to the airport for work, we have rental car companies renting cars to people getting off our airplanes, so it’s an important message,” Plante said. “Distracted driving is dangerous driving, so in that respect this was a proper venue. You also get people who might not ordinarily come into contact with a simulator like this.”

The AT&T simulator travels across the country, often to college campuses, to give a firsthand experience with the dangers of driving distracted.





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