Tainan Traffic Police Corps and Cathay Century Insurance jointly organized a motorcycle driving safety campaign for colleges on March 6 at universities in Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology. The campaign activity employed VR virtual reality to allow students to experience various traffic situations and accumulate their contingency experience, hoping to reduce the probability of accidents. Students showed great enthusiasm for participation in the campaign.

【Director Yang-Chi Wang of the Office of Student Affairs, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, was delivering a speech】

According to the statistics from Tainan Traffic Police Corps, of all the traffic accidents that caused deaths or injuries over the past 5 years, motorcycle accidents accounted for about 78%, while 32% of these accidents involved young people from 18 to 24 years old. Statistics on the number of traffic casualties last year’s showed that 2,705 traffic accidents occurred to drivers and riders between 18 and 24 year old, which accounted for 7.79% of all the accidents, resulting in 2,649 injuries and 6 deaths. The top five factors were due to failure to pay attention to the condition of the vehicle, failure to comply with the regulations of traffic order, failure to follow the regulations of speed reduction, violation against the signals or commands, and failure to maintain safety distance.

【Chief Ching-Yu Yang of Tainan Traffic Police Corps was delivering a speech】

As Tainan Traffic Police Corps pointed out, almost all the traffic accidents were caused by human factors. Therefore, Tainan City Government held the “Motorcycle Riders School—university motorcycle driving safety education workshop” in 18 colleges and universities, where the concept of locomotive defensive driving was discussed in terms of actual traffic accidents and relevant laws and regulations were taught by applications of actual operation. It was felt that most of the lectures in the past, which were mostly given by playing videos with narration explanations, tended to lack proper interaction with students. This year, lecture were added by VR virtual reality technology developed by Cathay Century Insurance. After wearing a VR helmet, students could simulate driving a motorcycle, passing water sluice, parking in parallel, riding past car doors suddenly opened, roads under work, and other common driving situations. All these were used to test riders’ reactions to road risks, by which riders’ perception could be evaluated and accident rate could be scored. If riders involved with illegal or dangerous driving, their experience and capabilities could be improved by systematic record reviews.

【A student was experiencing VR virtual reality of riding a motorcycle】

Director Yang-Chi Wang of the Office of Student Affairs, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that college students mainly take motorcycles as their means of transportation. They are more likely to enjoy pleasure because of their young age; yet, they still need a lot of experience and better and accurate judgment on road conditions and blind spots. This is often an important factor for car accidents. For Tainan City Traffic Police Corps and Cathay Century Insurance Co., Ltd., the motorcycle riding safety campaign with VR virtual reality at STUST and other colleges and universities allowed students to understand various road risk situations. It was a pioneering initiative, which has become very popular with students, unlike those in the past. The intentions of the Tainan Police Department should be greatly affirmed, and it is hoped that students can learn to take good care of themselves so that they can ride safely and achieve the highest goal of STUST—zero accidents and zero casualties.

【The VR virtual reality software also users to download and use the APP "Awakening of Sensibility," allowing them to understand the various risk situations on the road and accumulate experience of making proper responses】

【VR Virtual Reality allows students to experience various road risk situations, accumulate contingency experiences. It is expected to reduce the probability of accidents as students participated enthusiastically in it and the campaign proved to be very successful】