Arrive Alive Tour makes stop at McKenzie High School

JACKSON, Tenn. — An educational tour visits a West Tennessee High School, promoting safe driving among teens.

The Arrive Alive Tour, sponsored by the Tennessee Highway Safety Office, made a stop at McKenzie High School Thursday.

The tour delivers an immersive experience aimed at preventing impaired and distracted driving among teens. Unite’s Arrive Alive Tour stands as the nation’s leading awareness event on drunk and distracted driving, featuring the country’s first marijuana driving simulator.

This state-of-the-art simulator gives participants a safe, hands-on experience of the real-life dangers of driving while distracted, intoxicated, or under the influence of marijuana, without any actual risk.

“Now when they are in the car, if you see those two front tires are pulled on to those pads that allow it to turn in place without the car actually being on, and then the one on the passenger side has a cable that runs back to my laptop which controls the whole simulator, and then depending on whether I set it to where they are simulating driving drunk or drugged, the car is going to respond differently in how they swerve and brake,” said Jalen Burress, event manager for the Arrive Alive Tour.

With Tennessee’s 2023 statistics showing more than 170,000 car accidents, including more than 61,000 crashes involving young drivers aged 16 to 25, this event comes at a critical time.

Distracted driving accounts for more than 11% of all accidents in the state, underscoring the need for impactful education.

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