Some professional drivers came to Stow-Munroe Falls High School on Thursday and put the fun back in driver education.
Instead of the didactic doldrums of classroom work, they were in the parking lot using their own cars to practice emergency stops on wet pavement and swerving between lanes and stopping. The pros were on hand to show them how and offer tips.
It’s part of the “Key to Safe Teen Driving” program sponsored by Key Bank with help from Kumho tires, Conrad’s Total Car Care stores and Honda.
For Andy Walls of Munroe Falls, it was a day of fun in the sun.
“They weren’t as anal about it; they weren’t as strict about it as regular education would be,” said Walls, 16, who has been driving since April.
He said he learned a lot. For example, he was shown and told that when in a skid, he should look where he wants to go, not where he is headed. Then he was put in a “skid car” that has what looks like training wheels at the side that take some of the weight off the regular tries and allow the car to slip as the students drive in figure 8s.
That was part of the fun for Weston, hearing the tires screech as he sped around the pylons.
There was a little bit of lecturing. They heard about the dangers of distracted driving, particularly texting, and road rage.
Andy Walls, 15, of East Canton, wasn’t sure he wanted to attend when he first heard about the program.
“I was a little skeptical at first and then I looked online and I thought it doesn’t sound too bad,” he said.
With only two weeks of driving under his belt, he could not estimate how much the program helped him, but the East Canton High School student said he learned a lot.
David Roush is part of the Honda factory racing team and was joined by fellow drivers Adam Andretti, Cole Carter and Jim Bishop.
Roush said many of the teens come in with a know-it-all attitude but are quickly turned around by a sports analogy.
“Our opinion is they are just passengers behind the wheel until they actually go out and practice,” he said. “It’s like putting them out in a game and hitting a home run on their first pitch and they are not going to do it. So they need to practice in the batting cage and learn how to do it.”
Roush is general manager of the Mid-Ohio School in Lexington that offers driver training for adults and teens at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
He said assessing the results of the hands-on driving instruction for teens is difficult, but seeing the change in attitudes of the teens when the program begins and when it ends shows him it’s making progress.
Like Walls, many of the students are dubious before they have the fun of practicing on the course and learning from professional drivers.
But Roush said he gets some feedback from authorities in the counties near Lexington.
“The information I’ve got from the juvenile court system, because I’ve got several counties that send me their juvenile offenders… the one judge tells me they get a 75 percent reduction in juvenile offenders,” he said.
The Mid-Ohio defensive driving instruction for teens lasts eight hours and charges about $350. The program in Stow took three hours and was free.
Dan Davis, vice president and public relations manager for Key Bank, said this is the third year of the program. There were only two events the first year, eight last year and 14 this year. An event at Jackson High School on Wednesday attracted 95 students. Thursday’s event in Stow had 65 register.
Davis said a lot of people ask why a bank is doing a program like driver training, but he said it’s about helping people.
“We need to do a better job teaching our children how to drive because way too many teens are dying in car accidents every year and experts believe better training can help.
Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Scott on Twitter at Davescottofakro.
