(Photo by Alexandra Olgin - KJZZ)

Arcadia High School students tested their ability to text and drive Friday. The program was designed to demonstrate the dangers of distracted driving the day before prom.  

A group of teenagers watches a classmate crashing his car into a pedestrian. Luckily, he’s on driving simulator.

“It’s harder to text and drive. You don’t really concentrate that well,” said Sanchez.

Junior Fernando Sanchez was the first Arcadia student to try the simulation. It’s part of a national campaign with the insurance company Allstate that stops in 40 cities.  Allstate Agent Misty Everette says nearly 2,000 people have tried the simulator.

“They are expected to maintain a speed of 45 miles an hour and text at the same time or talk on the phone. Nobody has completed the program successfully. Everybody crashes,” said Everette. 

 More than 3,000 people were killed in distracted driving crashes in 2012 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Arizona is one of three states that doesn’t have some kind of texting ban. This year a bill that would have prohibited phone use for new drivers was introduced but didn’t pass the legislature.