Tulsans Get Reality Check With Texting And Driving Simulator

A bill banning texting and driving has now passed the Oklahoma senate and is headed to the house floor.

Spectators at the Tulsa Auto Show got a chance to see just how bad the habit of texting and driving can be in a simulator.

It's a lesson no one wants to learn in real life.

“I swerved,” Taylor Wilson said. “I swerved quite a bit."

Texting and driving can have fatal consequences, and that's why AT&T's "It Can Wait” campaign has a driving simulator set up at the Tulsa Auto Show.

It's a way to give drivers a reality check--without the real life consequences.

“We go to high schools, colleges, and today we're here at the auto show and we're educating people about the dangers of texting and driving,” AT&T spokesperson CJ Johnson said.

And it's a powerful message in the state right now -- just months after two troopers were hit by an alleged distracted driver.

Trooper Nicholas Dees was killed and trooper Keith Burch was badly injured.

The two were working an accident near Shawnee when police say the driver hit them because he was looking at his phone.

The accident prompted a recent bill headed to the house floor for a vote that would ban texting and driving in the state.

And after using the simulator-- it's a law these drivers say needs to happen.

“It's more like a DUI because you're all over the road,” Wilson said. “It's worse than a DUI in my opinion."