MADD Canada is offering a fun interactive way to discuss a serious problem.
The MADD Smartwheels Bus is in Regina this week, inside of the bus there’s a virtual reality simulation of what happens behind the wheel of a drunk driver.
Darren Chetana, Elementary School Program Facilitator, explains what happens inside of the bus. “They experience what it’s like to be impaired while driving and they learn the lessons that will help them get through middle school, high school and as adults so they don’t encounter situations like this, and they know how to go about this in social situations when they get older and how to navigate that.”
Chetana explains that the education of the bus is aimed at kids between Grade 4-6. “This gives them the foundation that they need going into those older years and when they do encounter those tough situations, they’ll already have a baseline of knowledge on how to experience it, what is right and wrong and how to go about it so everyone has a fun and safe time.”
With the modern virtual reality, Chetana noted that the bus is a big hit for children. “Encapsulating us in an experience where we could be like driving impaired, but we don’t have to experience it ourselves in an dangerous environment. We can do it in the bus, where we are all safe, sitting in a bus and we get to experience it and it feels just as real as we were in the real thing. ”
Chetana added that one of the best features of the bus is that it allows them to travel throughout the province. “We come to you, to your school, for your Grade 4,5 and 6 students. Wherever we are in Saskatchewan, it’s not just a big city thing, where big cities have a lot the resources, we can go out to smaller towns, smaller communities where the message still needs to be delivered and they can get the experience just as any other kid does because this is a mobile classroom and we are traveling throughout the whole province.”
The bus will be in Regina for the remainder for the week, on Wednesday it will be at the SGI Claims building on Pasqua Street and on Thursday at Casino Regina.
Chetana noted that the bus is available for bookings in Saskatchewan for anyone interested in using the mobile classroom.
