Simulator helps young people drive safely

Road safety is not only important to drivers but to pedestrians as well. The Aramco mobile safe driving institute teaches the importance of safe driving. It offers this service free of cost at the Aramco summer festival from 6 till 11 p.m. through next week.
The program is conducted with the cooperation of the Committee for Traffic Safety of the Eastern Region.
Ahmed Khowja, a volunteer instructor at the institute, said they are giving information and help the public to learn from their driving mistakes through a test drive on one of six visual simulators.
“Before starting to drive in the simulator a driver has to answer a few questions. After that he can sit in the simulator to check his mistakes,” he said.
He explained that through these simulators, drivers had the opportunity to learn safe driving. The simulators had been programmed to show a virtual city, streets small buildings, a footpath and surveillance cameras to check speeding.
Only drivers with a license are allowed to enter the program. “We accept only men aged 19 years and above. Women are not allowed to participate, as the government prohibits women driving. If we allowed women to drive here, they might get excited and start driving on the road,” said Khowaja.
The simulator institute would improve the driving skills of the public, especially youth, through a unique experience with audio and video visuals, without going out on a real road. It also teaches them in a limited time space how to avoid accidents.
Drivers have to give answers of 12 questions before taking part in the simulator, drivers are asked 12 questions about the use of a safety belt, the control of lighting effects, how much distance should be kept between vehicles and their habits while driving. These enable them to keep safe and exercise caution in some of the things that they usually ignore.
Almost 170,000 drivers already benefited from the safe driving program since the institute started operations in 2009.
Khowja also said that the mobile institute came all the way from Dhahran to Jeddah and every two months they move to another city.
“Next month we are heading for Taif, after that we will go to Makkah. We also go on invitation to different departments to give workshops on safe driving and traffic safety program to their employees. We participated in different events and festivals to provide our services to the community as it is our aim and responsibility,” said Khowja.