Free Driving Simulators

Driving Simulator Helps Lower Town Insurance Costs

The MIIA Simulator has rolled into Westborough offering a driver training program to the members of the Westborough Fire Department . The program, which includes 1 1/2 hours of classroom instruction followed by about a half hour “behind the wheel” in the simulator, is offered free of charge as a MIIA membership benefit. MIIA (Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association) is Westborough’s property and casualty insurance provider.

The Simulator arrived in a 30-foot mobile trailer. It is a state-of-the art computer driven simulator which can be programmed to reproduce various weather conditions including rain, fog, snow and darkness. In addition, it replicates road conditions as well as possible obstacles such as people and oncoming cars. In total, the simulator is capable of reproducing 150 driving conditions and situations.

In the simulator, the participant responds to an incoming call identifying the emergency at hand and the location of the emergency - just as it would happen at the fire station. Here, though, while operating the simulated emergency vehicle, he is able to experience different driving scenarios without risk.

David Bastien, a former police officer in Warwick, Rhode Island, is the lead public safety driving instructor for MIIA. He has been teaching driver safety for more than 6 years and was on hand in Westborough this week. “Taking the class and using the simulator,” he said, “has proven to reduce the amount of injuries and collisions by 14-22 percent.” He calls it a win-win situation, stating that for towns which have taken part in the driving safety program, “the safety vehicles (police cars, ambulances, fire engines) are in fewer accidents which translates into fewer damages and injuries and, as a result, the insurance company has less claims to pay out.” 

Upon completion of the program, the town is eligible to receive a reduction in the property and casualty insurance costs. 

According to Bastien, the goal for MIIA is to bring the Simulator Driving Training Program to all 350-plus cities and towns in Massachusetts. In 2010, more than 4,000 city and town safety officers at 52 locations completed the driver safety program. 

Inside the simulator is a collection of police and fire patches from each of the towns where the program has been completed. Westborough will be next to join the “wall of fame.”

The MIIA Simulator will be at the fire station through Friday, June 17 with classes running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Driving Simulator Training Ensures Stress Free Driving By Young ...

Driving simulator is an educational tool that simulates actual driving on a road under different traffic and road conditions. This simulation tool is used to teach learners how to drive vehicles and the rules for the road. You can work on the simulator before and during practice with an actual vehicle under real driving conditions. Depending on your requirements, you can operate the simulator to simulate driving car or a heavy vehicle or a car with a trailer.

It would sound as though the driving simulator is a just another driving game, but it will alert the driver when a driving mistake is made – mistakes that could represent serious accidents in real life. When you are practicing with the simulator, your mistakes are logged and you have to get back to your starting point to see the mistakes you made and repeat the action till you muster the correct movement. The professional software can handle three monitors which prompt students to develop the habit of turning their heads- a vital safety requirement – to look for incoming traffic while starting a car from rest. Safe driving involves use of your judgment and fine tuning of your reaction. It also involves right use of the car equipment like the gear, steering, rear view mirror etc. The simulator helps you to develop these faculties and by repeated practice these get ingrained in you. To have these faculties developed the driving simulator lets you through a series of different situations you would encounter on a real road. These are: One of the common causes of traffic accidents due to distraction during driving is the usage of mobile phones while driving. To highlight this point, driving simulators like Simuride is programmed to demonstrate the danger of unmindful driving. Simulation tools exist to test these dangers. Similar is the case with drunken driving which takes a heavy toll on life on the road. But a simulator like SimuRide HE will make your driving learning easy and flawless and soon it will turn you into a responsible driver in real life.

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