JOHN COFFELTEditor

Students at Coffee County Central High School were shown the dangers of distracted and impaired driving during a presentation Dec. 7 by the National Save A Life Tour.

After crashing several times in the distracted driving simulator, Junior Elliot Clark said that he would most definitely not text and drive.

“I learned it was a struggle to text when driving,” he said.

Two stimulators were set up, a distracted driving and impaired driving simulator, which the students drove after watching a video that shared related information.

Program presenter CJ Rich, of Matric Entertainment, explained that there are three types of distractions drivers encounter, cognitive, physical and visual.

“When a person is operating a cell phone device, they are using those same three techniques,” he told the students. “You only have one brain; you can’t use two at the same time.”

He cautioned that when you are driving a car, you are already distracted by those necessary distractions. “Cars, red lights and pedestrians – all are things you’re supposed to be attentive to as opposed to the phone,” Rich said “When you build on top of those distractions by creating unnecessary ones, your chance of crashing increases by seven or eight times. Don’t do that.”

He acknowledged that the students sometimes embolden to do whatever they want in their cars.

“It’s liberating to be able to do whatever you want in your vehicle. It’s a choice, a decision that you make yourself,” he said.

The program travels to schools, military bases and colleges across the country to teach people to drive cars safely and road etiquette.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.