The International Save a life Tour visited Islip High School, providing students with hands-on virtual-reality driving simulators, on Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Islip High School gymnasium.

This cutting-edge educational event was sponsored by the school’s PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association) and hosted by principal Dr. Lara Gonzalez and PTSA president Stacey Zurbaran. This comprehensive, high-intensity, safe-driving awareness program informs, educates, and demonstrates the potentially fatal consequences made by automobile drivers. It specifically focuses on critical driving situations such as impaired and distracted driving, driver experience, improper driving behavior, exhausted driving, and seatbelt usage.

The innovative 21st-century teaching program uses a variety of methods—geared toward reaching today’s generation of technology-obsessed teenagers—such as engaging video and speaking presentations, interactive demonstration with simulators, pre-and-post-activity surveys, and takeaways, including a safe-driving pledge and a commemorative wristband.

Ben Middleton, a presenter with the National Save a Life Tour, gave a moving speech in front of vivid, eye-catching tour posters on display, along with huge video monitors and the futuristic driving simulators, ready to kick into high gear—while never leaving the gymnasium—before the students in grades 11 and 12, bounded down the bleachers to line up and get ready to put on their virtual-reality goggles to take the simulator for a ride.

The concept of this safe-driving tool—which is evocative of a video game—is to have participants leave the event forever altered by the rare chance to experience, from a sober perspective, the impairing effects of alcohol on motor skills and reaction time.

While Middleton had only been in his presenter position for three weeks when he visited Islip High School, he proved to be a natural at reaching students, being a laidback and genuine young man himself, who shared relatable, personal accounts of how impaired driving has profoundly touched his own life.

“I’ve been affected personally, multiple times, by both things,” Middleton said, explaining how intoxicated driving and texting and driving had both impacted those close to him, resulting in tragic incidents, which could have been prevented. “I’m very lucky to be given this opportunity. If one or two kids heed it, I feel great,” he said.

He told the students a somber cautionary tale about his friend’s younger brother, who was texting his father to say that he made it to Pennsylvania while driving a long distance, and while texting this quick message, the car hydroplaned and he was killed. Middleton asked all those in the room to think before getting behind the wheel, and to never drive while impaired, distracted, or exhausted. “Think about everyone that loves and cares about you, and everyone that loves and cares about the people in this room,” he implored.

The charismatic speaker also told the audience about the time when he rolled his car, at 18 years old, and woke up with a seatbelt dangling around his neck and with a concussion.

“If you’re falling asleep at the wheel, pull over,” admonished the presenter, who may have avoided that near-fatal accident if he had heeded that simple advice. “It’s just as dangerous, if not more so, than drinking and driving, exhausted driving,” Middleton warned, adding that all three are extremely dangerous.

Michael Sanko, who is in grade 11, remarked after trying the simulator, “It will make them think twice before texting and driving. It’s kind of like an arcade game.”

PTSA president Stacey Zurbaran tried the drunk-driving simulator. “You can’t see your hands, and you don’t feel a full stop. Your equilibrium is off,” she noted. Zurbaran explained that this program was paid for by parents’ membership dues to the PTSA. “It’s their money,” she said, hoping that parents know their funds are being well spent on important educational events such as this, which wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

Zurbaran was grateful to the members of the Save a Life tour who drove—safely, no doubt—all the way there from Michigan. “They’re young, relatable. The students are hopefully finding this fun, and that it’s putting in an impact that will make them think twice when driving.”

For more information go to www.savealifetour.com.