GREEN RIVER — The Green River City Council unanimously approved for the Green River Police Department (GRPD) to submit a State Farm Good Neighbor Citizenship Company Grant application, which if awarded will be used to purchase driving simulators.

The driving simulators will have the ability to simulate various driving conditions and safety concerns, including impaired and distracted driving.

“The first few weeks of school are always a big time for traffic crashes… our young drivers tend to be too big of a percentage of our crashes throughout town,” said GRPD Chief Tom Jarvie.

The driving simulators would be used by the school resource officers (SRO) who are already doing traffic safety programs in the high schools.

“The goal is to have an hour with each student in their first driving year to go over distracted driving and impaired driving particularly,” Chief Jarvie said.

The simulators, which cost $26,414, are portable and would be able to be set up at any desk. Chief Jarvie said it includes a computer monitor with pedals on the floor. They also include a pre-test and post-test, which would help the SRO with talking and teaching points for students.

There is no local match to the grant, according to Green River Grants Manager Ryan Rust. The agenda item included $9,093 in City of Green River funding, which accounts for the estimated hours that the SRO’s will spend to administer the program.

“That’s already budgeted funding,” Rust said.