Michigan recorded 288,880 motor vehicle accidents and 1,099 traffic deaths in 2024; in both instances, the total was up over the previous year. This is a representative of a national crisis that has killed approximately 845,000 people on U.S. highways since 2000. 

We believe that road safety simulations can prevent a lot of these tragedies. Professional truck drivers train on simulators that show them how to recover from hydroplaning, handle black ice, and respond when another vehicle swerves into their lane. The average Michigan driver gets none of this training, yet they face the same hazards during a snowstorm or in heavy rain. We’re asking the state to require driving schools to include road safety simulations in their programs so new drivers learn how to survive real emergencies before they encounter them on the road.

Why Current Driver Training Fails Michigan Residents

Michigan’s current driver education program requires students to pass a written test and complete a 15-minute road test that covers parallel parking, K-turns, and basic traffic sign obedience. What it doesn’t do is prepare anyone for the split-second decisions that can prevent fatal crashes. 

You’re not tested on any of the following:

• Steering out of a sudden skid;
• Maintaining control in fog or snow, or; 
• Reacting when a deer jumps onto the highway while you’re going 70 mph.

Approximately 94 percent of car crashes involve some form of driver behavior like speeding, distraction, failing to yield, or DUI, which means better training could directly prevent most of the crashes happening on Michigan roads right now.

What is a Road Safety Simulator?

A road safety simulator is a tool or system used to replicate real-world driving conditions in a controlled, virtual environment. It includes a mock vehicle setup (usually a car seat, pedals, steering wheel, and dashboard) connected to a computer system running simulation software. This software is then used to teach or test how drivers react to various traffic situations without putting them in actual danger.

Here’s how it works:

• The simulator projects realistic driving environments on a screen or through VR. They can include intersections, highways, rural roads, and bad weather.
• It creates scenarios with hazards, like a child running into the road, sudden braking from another vehicle, or low visibility conditions.
• Sensors track how the driver responds in terms of speed, reaction time, braking, steering, and use of turn signals.
• The data is used to evaluate driving decisions or teach safer habits.

Road safety simulators are used by:

• Researchers to study behavior under different road conditions
• Government agencies for public safety programs
• Commercial fleets to train staff without risking vehicles or injury

Where they’re not so common is in driving schools. And that needs to change. The state’s current driver education system hasn’t changed in decades while roads have gotten faster, vehicles have gotten heavier, and distractions have multiplied. 

What Road Safety Simulators Can Teach

Modern driving simulators replicate the exact conditions that cause fatal crashes in Michigan. Students can-

• Practice recovering from hydroplaning when rain turns the highway into a skating rink
• Learn to control their vehicle when black ice sends them spinning 
• Experience what happens when they overcorrect after drifting onto the shoulder at highway speeds

Companies like Systems Technology Inc. manufacture risk mitigation simulators that create realistic scenarios like sudden tire blowouts, vehicles running red lights at intersections, and animals darting across rural roads at night. These aren’t video games – they use actual vehicle controls and physics engines that mirror real-world driving conditions, teaching muscle memory and proper reaction techniques that students can’t learn from a textbook or a calm drive around the DMV parking lot.

How Michigan Can Implement Simulator Training

The state can require all licensed driver education programs to include simulator sessions before students take their road test. Virtual Driver Interactive’s simulators cost between an average of $9,900 and $14,000 per unit, and schools across all 50 states already use them in varying degrees for driver education. Full-scale driving simulators can cost $500,000, but VR options run a few hundred dollars, and screen-based simulators cost even less, which means Michigan schools can choose systems that fit their budgets. 

Schools can start with basic models that cover the most common crash scenarios – skid recovery, emergency lane changes, and reaction to sudden obstacles – then expand their programs as funding becomes available.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Traffic crashes in Michigan cost $36,584,295,000 in 2023, which translates to approximately $3,645 per state resident. That number includes medical bills, lost wages, vehicle damage, and emergency response costs. There’s also an emotional cost: families lose breadwinners, children grow up without parents, and survivors live with traumatic injuries that change their lives forever.

Michigan spends billions repairing guardrails, clearing crash debris, and dispatching ambulances to preventable accidents while the state’s driver education requirements haven’t changed in decades. Adding simulator training costs a fraction of what the state already loses to crashes, and it addresses the root cause instead of just cleaning up the aftermath.

What Success Looks Like

Driving schools that already use simulators report that students arrive for their first road lesson with better vehicle control capability and hazard awareness than students who skip simulator training. Students practice emergency braking until they understand how much distance a car needs to stop at different speeds, they learn to check mirrors and blind spots automatically, and they experience what happens when they overcorrect during a skid. This repetition builds muscle memory that kicks in during real emergencies on actual roads. 

A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute tracked 107 commercial truck drivers through three different training programs: a conventional eight-week certified course, the same eight-week course with 60 percent of driving time spent in a simulator, and a CDL test-focused short course. Results showed no training group differences in DMV road tests, and conventional-trained and simulator-trained participants generally scored higher than CDL-focused participants on DMV range tests. 

This means simulators can replace substantial portions of expensive on-road training time while producing the same skill level. Michigan can implement the same approach and give new drivers the skills they need before they share the road with the rest of us.

Join the Petition

We’ve launched a petition on Change.org to require Michigan’s Department of State to update driver education requirements and include mandatory road safety simulator training for all new drivers. The petition asks for simulators that cover winter driving conditions, emergency vehicle maneuvers, hazard perception, and distraction management before students can take their road test. 

Michigan already requires classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training, but neither component teaches students how to handle the dangerous situations that cause most fatal crashes. Adding simulator training gives students the skills they need without putting them at risk during the learning process, and it costs the state nothing because driving schools would purchase and operate the equipment themselves.

What You Can Do

• Sign the petition at Change.org and share it with other Michigan residents who want safer roads. 
• Contact your state representative and senator to tell them you support updating driver education requirements to include simulator training. 
• If you run a driving school in Michigan, research which simulator systems fit your budget and student capacity so you’re ready when the requirement passes. 
• Parents can ask their teen’s driving school whether they currently offer simulator training and, if not, why they haven’t invested in equipment that’s already proven to work in other states. 

Every signature on this petition pushes Michigan closer to a driver education system that actually prepares people for the roads they’ll face, not just the parking lot test they’ll pass.

Michigan Can’t Afford to Wait

Teen fatalities in Michigan rose 17 percent in 2024, and most of these deaths happened because young drivers didn’t know how to react when the weather turned bad or when another vehicle created a dangerous situation. The state spends billions cleaning up after crashes while driver education stays stuck in the 1970s with parallel parking tests and written exams that don’t teach anyone how to handle a real emergency. 

Professional drivers already train on simulators because the industry knows it works, yet Michigan sends teenagers onto I-75 with less preparation than a commercial truck driver gets before hauling freight. This petition gives the state a clear path forward: require simulator training, let driving schools implement it at their own cost, and save lives by teaching skills that actually prevent the crashes killing more than 1,000 Michigan residents every year. Sign the petition, contact your representatives, and help us bring Michigan’s driver education into the 21st century.

Attorney Jeffrey Perlman

Attorney Jeffrey Perlamn is the managing partner at LegalGenius, PLLC. He has helped Metro Detroit accident victims recover the compensation they deserve for over 35 years. He believes everyone should have access to justice and the legal system, which is why Attorney Perlman spends his time outside of the courtroom writing informational blogs on the LegalGenius website that are accessible to all.