EAST LONGMEADOW -- Albert Duncan, a 17-year-old senior at East Longmeadow High School, said he has never tried to text while driving.
But he gave it a try Thursday in a driving simulation called Distractology 101.
"I was driving the speed limit," Duncan said after completing the simulation. "All of a sudden the car braked ahead of me and I was looking down at my phone and I crashed into the car because I wasn't paying attention."
The Arbella Insurance Foundation's Distractology 101 mobile classroom was parked outside the school for four days last week.
Students at the school signed up for 45-minute sessions steering a virtual car through different simulations on wrap-around video screens. They tried to text while driving, but also had to deal with other virtual distractions, including other drivers' errors.
The simulation has local roots - it was created at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. According to Arbella Insurance, UMass Professor Donald Fisher, head of the university's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, is an expert on distracted driving who found that putting drivers in real-life scenarios is the best way to teach them to drive safely.
The Arbella Insurance Foundation sponsored Fisher's distracted driving research at the university's Human Performance Laboratory, and he developed the simulator as a result in 2010.
Since its launch, over 10,000 drivers have participated in the simulation.
The Distractology 101 trailer found its way to East Longmeadow High School last week thanks to a Springfield insurance agency. Chase, Clarke, Stewart and Fontana Insurance Agency arranged the free visit from the Distractology 101 trailer because agents wants to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving among young, inexperienced drivers, according to agent Cameron Grimes.
"You've got to be a heads up driver," he said.
Grimes, a graduate of the East Longmeadow High School, watched dozens of students try to text while behind the wheel of the simulator. Even though he knew what to expect, he crashed into the virtual car in front of him when he tried to send a text.
Nick Prpich, the Distractology 101 trainer who manned the mobile classroom, said some students who come in are honest about their bad habit of texting while driving. Then they hop in the driver's seat and realize how quickly they can crash while looking down at their phones.
"They think it's only one second and actually it's four or five seconds," Prpich said. At 55 mph, the driver would have traveled the length of a football field while looking down. "They're actually surprised."
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 71 percent of teens and young adults report sending texts while driving, and 78 percent say they've read texts behind the wheel.
But the young drivers who go through the Distractology 101 program are 22 percent less likely to check their phones while driving, according to findings by Arbella Insurance Foundation.
Duncan said he knows not to use his phone while he is driving, but there were other distractions to deal with, too.
Prpich said many students who fill out a survey before the program admit to other distracting behavior while driving, like messing around with the stereo system or talking on the phone.
"It was really eye-opening," Duncan said. "Distractions, they're everywhere, whether it's your phone or your surroundings."