Simulator helps students learn of dangers and consequences
OCEAN CITY — The John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers hosted its 11th HERO Walk on Oct. 16 under cloudy skies with a distinct feeling of fall in the air.
Bill Elliott, founder of the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers, talks with Ocean City’s Miss Night In Venice Gracie Anderson before the annual HERO Walk Sunday.
Dozens of supporters, families who have lost loved ones to drunken driving, groups and volunteers gathered at the Ocean City Sports and Civic Center, where for the first time participants could use a next-generation computer simulator to learn about the perils of impaired and distracted driving.
The unit made its debut days earlier at Egg Harbor Township High School, from where the HERO Campaign’s namesake John Elliott graduated in 1996 as class president.
HERO Campaign spokesman Michael Epifano said students really had a positive reaction to the simulator.
“They talk about reaching people where they are, this is reaching the kids where they are. They get it with a video game. They’re having a good time and they’re smiling with it but when it is all said and done and they sit down and try it out, you can tell the seriousness of using it and the consequences of driving while either impaired or distracted are devastating and they get that,” Epifano said.
The virtual instruction is intended for juniors and seniors who sit in front of a large desktop computer screen equipped with a steering wheel and pedals. The organization will be taking it to high schools throughout southern New Jersey.
The “One Simple Decision” virtual-driving instruction unit, funded by a grant from the Honda USA Foundation, will enable students to virtually “drive” an on-screen car while their reactions are altered to simulate impaired driving. When the drivers experience accidents, videos of police and EMTs arriving on the scene provide realistic consequences of impaired driving, including judges imposing fines and drivers losing their license.
Members of the EHTHS cheerleading team, a mainstay of support at the event, were trying out the simulator before their performance.
Keri Coupland, 16, was riding shotgun with Kylee Duncan, 17, behind the wheel and Jessie Chishko, 14, and others in the back.
Duncan said she learned “I can’t drunk drive and I shouldn’t go on my phone because I might get in a crash and kill other people.”
Michele Chishko, a teacher in the Egg Harbor Township School District, said she participates every year.
“This program is very helpful for the students because it teaches about distractions with drinking, driving and the big thing is the cell phone,” Chishko said.” This is teaching them that distractions are everywhere.”
“This will be a game-changer,” said Bill Elliott, father of John Elliott.
Previous DUI prevention instruction methods had students wear “fatal vision” goggles to simulate drunken driving.
“This is far more realistic,” Elliott said.
Ensign John Elliott was killed by a drunken driver in July 2000. It was just two months after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was named the “Outstanding HERO” of his graduating class.
The Elliott family established the HERO Campaign to prevent drunken driving by promoting the use of safe and sober designated drivers in an effort to spare other families from suffering the loss of a loved one.
Elliott said the event was sidetracked for a year during the COVID-19 pandemic but is rebuilding. He said it’s important to maintain the message.
“They’re still killing 10,000 people a year every year,” he said of drunken drivers. “We expanded the mission to include distracted driving.”
Elliott said drunken driving is “the most preventable crime in America. If people just would use their common sense, and now there’s no excuse with Uber and designated drivers is something kids have grown up with, the idea that you don’t drink and drive, you get someone to drive you home,” Elliott said.
He said there is no question that the message is resonating. He said they conducted a poll through Stockton University that showed a high degree of awareness for the importance of not driving drunk and awareness for the HERO Campaign.
Sunday’s event featured a display of HERO patrol cars from police departments throughout southern New Jersey, which serve as rolling billboards for the campaign as they are wrapped with the organization’s blue and yellow logo and safety message “Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver.”
“These HERO cars have been a great help,” Elliott said. “They are our good will ambassadors and rolling billboards around town.”
He said 11 police departments have a HERO car and that Egg Harbor Township soon would be the 12th.
Absecon resident Vincent Dalessandro was attending the event with his wife, Susan.
“If you’re not paying attention behind the wheel, you’re taking incredible people away from us like John Elliott,” Dalessandro said. “It’s not just alcohol and drugs, it’s texting, it’s all kinds of different distractions.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff