MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - From texting and driving to even just using smart phones in general, it's very easy for drivers to lack attention while behind the wheel.

Every day in the United States, over 8 people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured in crashes that involve a distracted driver.

And here in Meridian Township, people are caught doing all sorts of things behind the wheel.

"They eat, read newspapers, do their makeup all sorts of stuff," said Sergeant Scott Dawson of the Meridian Township Police Department.

Besides the infamous text and drive epidemic, Sgt. Dawson even said he's caught drivers Facebooking.

"Last year one of the people we pulled over...she was actually Facebooking on the way to the gym."

From fiddling with the radio, to reaching in the backseat of the car, it's very easy for drivers to get distracted in their vehicles.

Because of that, the Meridian Township Police Department has a a program for kids to teach them what not to do behind the wheel.

The office of highway safety planning has a computer program called a driving simulator that allows kids to experience the feeling of losing control of their vehicle.

"I wasn't looking at the road and so the car started to swerve and do a bunch of other things and I didn't see what it was doing," 15 year old Jaacob Trudell of Bath, Michigan mentioned.

"I was afraid I was gonna crash," said 14 year old Isaac Brunson of Williamston, Michigan.

"The distracted driving is really cool because it actually lets you use our own cell phone and you can punch in a number and the program interacts and sends you texts that you're supposed to read and respond to which makes it harder to obviously drive," Sgt. Dawson stated.

With this program, the police department is ultimately hoping that these kids learn the severity of distracted driving before they hit the road.

"Hopefully this is where they learn that message and not have to go on the road text and drive and rear-end somebody, hit a pedestrian or something like that," said Sgt. Dawson.