With motor vehicle crashes killing more American teens than any other injury, disease or violence, ensuring young drivers know the risks of driving while impaired can save lives.

Putting them behind the wheel of a simulated program shows them exactly how impaired driving can have deadly consequences.

On Oct. 16, Cape High driver education students tested the Safety SIMulator, a virtual driving experience with working instruments and a three-screen, 120° view of their surroundings. The program creates driving scenarios in which the driver or other drivers on the road are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

State Farm Agent Ron Krajewski sponsored the program through the Pennsylvania DUI Association, which owns the simulator, during National Teen Driver Safety Week.

Krajewski urged hesitant students to approach the simulator. “It’s just pretend so you can’t get hurt,” he said. “That’s why we do this.”

Students steered through towns and highways while the system operator used a connected laptop to change conditions from day to night, sunny to windy and rainy. As students progressed through the course, the operator adjusted the driver’s ability to control the car, simulating a driver whose reactions are slowed by drugs or alcohol.

Driver education teacher Shannon Timmons said the risk-free setting gave students a better understanding of risks associated with impaired driving. “It taught them to drive defensively and anticipate other drivers,” she said. “It was good to show them what it’s like to drive impaired, because they thought they could do it - then they hit something.”

Krajewski said he visits Cape High’s driver education courses regularly to talk about insurance and safe driving. “I was just in their classes earlier this week, so it’s been a good week for safe driving at Cape,” he said.