Distractology Drives the Point Home

Distractology sounds like a game.

It is, but the amusement packs a message for high school kids and anyone else who thinks they can text and drive safely.

Off the Greenway below the school track and athletic field, senior Nicolette Gateman bounded up a ramp to the converted horse trailer and buckled into a seat to drive the simulator.

The object of the game is to drive and not crash, much like on the road, except here the results are forgiving.

Nicolette took to the simulator with confidence. She accelerated to the speed limit and held the car's speed there. She was neither overly cautious nor overconfident.

This is the same way she drives her Ford Escape, confident but not overconfident or overly cautious, she said.

The simulator's traffic scene rushes along and you can feel the sense of movement as the trees, buildings, and houses sweep by. The car in front gets bigger as you approach. The course includes curves and intersections and pedestrians striding over sidewalks.

Nicolette did well. For the first few minutes. Then she had to stop in a hurry and rear-ended a car at an intersection.

The instructor, Topher Paone, hadn't even started peppering her with calls and text messages.

Then, well, forget about, most people crash on this course.

Ninety-five percent crash during the text-and-drive portion. And the other 5 percent do something illegal to avoid the crash, such as drive off the road or into the opposite traffic lane.

There was one student, one out of 2,000, who pulled the car to the roadside and picked up the cell from the dash and answered the instructor's message.

Paone was impressed. But even so, the act would have been illegal in Massachusetts since drivers under 18 are not allowed to use cell phones.

Distractology's goal is to reinforce the reasoning behind the rule.

The program, hosted by the and introduced by the Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation, does so by focusing greater attention on the dangers of distracted driving.

Swampscott Driver Education teacher Joseph Bennett regularly tells his students about the dangers that distraction poses to drivers.

The texting brain is processing information and taking attention away from important visual cues on the road, he says.

It delays stopping by about 30 percent, Bennett said.

It is as debilitating as driving under the influence of alcohol, the teacher says.

Studies show that people who text while driving are 23 percent more likely to be in a crash or barely avoid one and that driving while distracted is equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol level of .08.

Distracted driving is an epidemic in the U.S. Each year, distracted driving claims the lives of more than 6,000 people and causes an estimated 1.6 million accidents.