The simulators will be placed at six locations:
* Three at Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center;
* Two at Clark County Department of Job and Family Services;
* Two at Clark State College;
* One at First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield;
* One at Life in Christ Community Church;
* One at High Street Church of the Nazarene.
DeWine said each site will have a translator and instructor who was trained to guide those in the program.
“It’s been great deal of concern in Springfield in regard to the driving issue, with particular driving among Haitians,” DeWine said during a press conference at High Street Church of the Nazarene. “This is, I think, a very understandable problem. Some of the people who are here are driving probably for the first time ... and also the laws and the norms of Haiti are just fundamentally different as far as driving than they are here.”
The Maria Tiberi Foundation and Virtual Drivers Interactive each donated five driving simulators for use in Springfield and Clark County. This makes a total of 12 simulators, as two were donated last year.
“A goal of these donated simulators is to enhance the eventual driver by allowing drivers to experience potential dangers behind the wheel, without being behind the wheel, without putting themselves or others as risk,” DeWine said.
In addition to the simulator project, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles driver’s manual has been translated into Haitian Creole.
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