ST. CLOUD -- A nationally touring driving simulator made a stop at Apollo High School Tuesday to give students a virtual experience showing the dangers of distracted driving.

AT&T's "It Can Wait" campaign uses a virtual reality headset that brings students through scenarios of being distracted while driving.

"This is a great opportunity for us to give some really impactful messaging to people about distracted driving," says Valerie Bruggeman of AT&T.

"It gives [students] an opportunity to test it out and very often they'll say 'I've done that while I'm driving and now I know how dangerous it can be'."

Apollo students Gabby Hermanson, Parker Kayser, and Alicia Filiyaro reached out to AT&T to bring the simulator to Apollo as part of their community problem solving project.

"Some of us have had friends who have gotten hurt or died [from] distracted driving," says Hermanson. "We also see our teachers do it, we see fellow peers doing it and it's just kind of irritating."

Students lined up to get a chance to try the simulator while it was in the Apollo cafeteria from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and many said the experience left an impact on them.

"I think people are actually liking it," says Filiyaro. "At first, people were kind of iffy about it but now there's a long line of people trying to get on it -- it's actually pretty cool."

The It Can Wait simulator will make four more stops at schools around Minnesota before heading to another state.

Photo by Isaac Schweer, WJON
(PHOTO: Isaac Schweer, WJON)
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