Rogers County Sheriff’s Office Implements New Driving Simulator

The Rogers County Sheriff's Office recently installed a new driving simulator as a tool to help to keep deputies and civilians safe on the road.

The initial idea was to educate teen drivers about distracted and drunk driving, but the sheriff's office wanted its own officers to benefit from the simulator as well.

The simulator is able to recreate driving in all sorts of environments and conditions, from heavy traffic on different roadways to showing what it's like when someone drives when that person has had anywhere from one to six beers.

One of the biggest draws is that anyone who uses the simulator gets to drive in a safe environment where you cannot get hurt.

"We’re not going to be hurting ourselves. The civilians, if they end up wrecking this car during the training program, they’re not going to get hurt. That saves injury from our deputies when we’re out on a course doing high-speed maneuvers, and it saves our cars also," Corporal Chris Houston with the Rogers County Sheriff's Office said.

Classes will be offered for teen drivers to learn about different driving conditions and both what to do and not to do while on the road. These classes will ideally gives the people who take it, better skills to use while driving.

"I would like to have something hopefully for students and that would look like a 2-to-3-hour course. It would not be anything overly taxing on time or anything like that, and it would be held in the evening for parents to be able to be present as well," Lt. Bronson Smith with the Rogers County Sheriff's Office said.

The Rogers County Sheriff's Office hopes that the simulator will be ready for classroom instruction for teen drivers before the end of the summer.