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High schoolers learn life-saving lesson from Mario Kart Wii

by JC Fletcher { May 19th 2009 at 12:55PM }

How do you keep kids from getting distracted? One school thinks Mario Kart is the answer. In order to teach kids about the dangers of texting while driving, Colorado's Vail Christian High School has introduced the "distracted and drowsy driving program," in which kids play Mario Kart Wii while answering and sending text messages, in order to see how phone use adversely affects driving skill. As a bonus, the program teaches awareness of hazards like banana peels and turtle shells.

The program, which also includes deterrents like a chair that simulates a 5MPH collision and a golf cart that simulates drunk driving, is part of Vail Christian's entry in a National Organization for Youth Safety contest. The school stands to win a $10,000 award if its program wins. Students who successfully demonstrate understanding of how dangerous texting while driving is will also earn college credit in Obvious Studies.

[Via GamePolitics]

i saw this one posted yesterday on there, pretty interesting.

people argue they could have used a driving game more realistic, but i think they were just wanting to get the point across that it's not an easy thing to do.

It is much easier to drive a real car while texting than to drive a Mario Kart Wii kart.

Even so, It is much easier to rear end a real life car, or run over a real life pedestrian and actually hurt someone. I've already been rear ended once due to some ditz texting while driving. Had I been on my motorcycle it would have been a pretty serious accident.

The point still stands, you can't effectively drive while being distracted. This goes for all sorts of distractions like putting on makeup, shaving, eating, reading, and even fiddling with the radio. I've seen people do all of these while speeding down the highway, and as soon as I see that they really aren't driving, I make sure to get as far away as possible as I don't want to be taken out with them.

If you really think about it, most people only have 2-3 seconds between them and the car in front of them, and a lot of times it is closer than that. If you spend 1 second looking down at your phone texting, you just lost all chances of stopping if an emergency occurs.