VR gives BHS kids a safe look at impaired, distracted driving

BERWICK – Teaching teens to drive safely, a task once left to bloody crash movies in driver’s ed, has gone virtual.
Arrive Alive, presented by a coalition of safety groups and private sponsors, came to Berwick High on Monday morning, providing the experience of driving while intoxicated or distracted without hurting anything but pride.
It’s a new way to reduce deaths from traffic accidents, which claimed 91 lives among drivers 15-20 in 2021 in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.
Arrive Alive featured a Jeep SUV equipped with virtual reality goggles for the driver. The SUV stayed in one spot, but the driver was able to experience the simulated effects of intoxication through the goggles while taking a virtual trip. Monitors allowed other students to see what the driver was seeing.
“It was a little different than I thought it would,” said Berwick High senior Brett Bearb after stepping from behind the goggles and the wheel. “It was hard to do.
“All my reactions were late. It really makes you think.”
Maybe he shouldn’t feel bad. James Richard, a Berwick Town Council member and longtime police chief, took a virtual ride and emerged with a grade of “poor. Very poor,” he said.
“It was a challenging test. I made a few errors in driving. It gave a good test. …
“It made you dizzy,” Richard said. “It makes your head spin a little.”
Students also were able to see what a roadside drunk-driving test is like, and were encouraged to throw beanbags at a target before putting on VR goggles and after.
Arrive Alive is a project that partners the South Central Regional Safety Coalition, the Acadiana Regional Safety Coalition, Nicholls State, the Louisiana State Police and private sponsor State Farm.
It’s an activity that fits in with the Louisiana Strategic Transportation Safety Plan, said Cassie M. Parker of the South Central Planning and Development Commission.
It offers the students something other than a passive, watch-a-film or hear-a-lecture experience, Parker said.
“You have to make it interactive,” she said. “They want to do something, to touch, to feel.”
Students are surveyed after they take their virtual drive.
“We get a real sense of attitudes that can change behavior,” Parker said. “That’s the goal.”
Can the program get through to teenagers?
Richard, who has raised six of his own, thinks so.
“Sometimes it’s very difficult,” he said. “It’s challenging raising teenagers.”
Being a police chief helped, he said.
But “for parents having trouble, this might help.”