M OCTOBER 3, 2011

autoweek.com

TEEN DRIVERS 2011

WHOS TEACHING THE TEENS?

We still have no minimal standard nationwide

BY KEVIN A. WILSON

24 AUTOWEEK OCTOBER 3, 2011

ERES HOW YOU prove youre qualified to teach driving in Colorado: Fill a glass container with ice. Breathe on the glass. If condensation forms, youre in. So said Ronn Langford, founder and CEO of MasterDrive (online at www.masterdrive.com), a driving school based in Colorado Springs, Colo., that also operates in Californias Orange County. In California, its tougher, Langford added. You take a test that turns out to be about as tough as the multiple-choice exam to get a drivers license. Its cursory. But at least theres a requirement. A little sarcasm goes a long way to make the point that despite decades of reform in the driver-education field, theres no minimal standard nationwide. Under systems of graduated driver licensing (GDL), teens are required to spend many hours driving with a parent or guardian. But there is no certainty that the parent is a good driver, let alone a competent teacher of the skill. Thats why we called Langforda presenter at Autoweeks Teen Driving Safety Summit back in 2007when we heard that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had published Novice Teen Driver Education and Training Administrative Standards. You can find the document online at http://tinyurl.com/ AWteendrivingreport)

The document purports to provide a comprehensive framework for state driver-education systems. Although its described as a nonmandated, unenforceable guideline, when GDL laws were first discussed, the same applied. Today, NHTSA has leveraged its clout and made GDLin at least some formthe standard in all 50 states. Characterizing this recent effort for us during a Ford-sponsored Web chat, Justin McNaull, director of the AAAs state relations office, said that a group of driver-education stakeholders . . . worked with NHTSA to develop guidelines for improving driver education nationwidebetter curricula, better instructor standards, better use of technology and better incorporation of behind-the-wheel practice. Were involved with a group that is now trying to figure out how to put these standards
OCTOBER 3, 2011 AUTOWEEK 25

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TEEN DRIVERS 2011

into practice in the states. Ford group vice president Sue Cischke noted that for its annual convention on Sept. 25, the Governors Highway Safety Association, one of the major players in this arena, scheduled a 90-minute workshop on reforming driver education. Stripped of the jargon, this sounds like progress toward something weve advocated in the pages of Autoweek: a nationwide system for ensuring that all new drivers acquire a base set of skills from instructors who share an understanding of what theyre doing. But Langford suggests that the document might not amount to much. For instance, he said, it says a driving instructor needs 120 hours of training. That sounds impressive. But 120 hours doing what? If its just sitting around a classroom studying the same old stuff

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MasterDrive programs include visualprocessing and brain-integration exercises that aim to improve response time.
MARK STOLBERG (2)
TM

that we know doesnt work to make people into better drivers, what are you achieving? Langford sets high standards for the people he hires and trains to coach new drivers. And coach is a key word. MasterDrive programs are grounded in brain science and an understanding of how people learn new skills. Rather than engage in the debate over whether driving should be a privilege or a

26 AUTOWEEK OCTOBER 3, 2011

Bob Green

May We Have Y our Attention, Please?

PROGRAMS SHOW DANGERS OF DISTRACTED DRIVING, OFFER SKILLS TO KEEP TEENS SAFE
BY DON KLEIN

AS ALBERT EINSTEIN wisely observed, Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. Although Einstein likely never heard the term multitasking, he obviously grasped the concept: You cant drive well and do something else at the same timeeven if youre a genius. Clearly, most of us arent geniuses. Last year, almost 33,000 people lost

their lives in vehicular accidents in the United States, often because they were driving while distracted. A disproportionate percentage of those people were younger than 21. In fact, death by automobile is the leading cause of teen mortality in the States. Want more scary statistics? Put just one teen passenger in a car driven by another teen, and the likelihood of a fatal crash doubles. Add an additional teen passenger, and the odds go up 500 percent. Yet, despite these disturbing statistics, every year, thousands of ill-prepared teens are issued licenses to kill. Doesnt anybody care? Bob Green does. In 1996, Greena former

high school teacher and longtime Skip Barber Racing School senior instructorestablished a nonprofit lecture series for high schools called Survive the Drive (online at www.survivethedrive.org) that slots nicely into 45minute assembly periods. The lecture includes videos made by students who have lost classmates in crashes, along with graphic stills of mangled cars and a dramatic demonstration using his (fake) pet mouse Ernie, whom he puts into a screw-top tin can and hurls violently at the floor to replicate how unrestrained humans flail about in a crash. But getting kids attention is just half of the equation. Hands-on education is the other component. Youve got to engage them in the learning process, says Rich Radi, who runs Top Driver (online at www.topdriver. com), a school dedicated to making kids better drivers. Most drivers-ed programs havent changed since they were created in the 50s. They tell kids what to do but dont ask them why theyre doing it. By engaging them, they learn and remember. But in the end, it comes down to the kids themselves. When asked whether the recent deaths of two classmates in separate car crashes made him a safer driver, a Virginia teen we spoke with replied, Sure, Im safer now. I mean, what are the chances of three kids from the same school getting killed in one year? Do we have your attention now? c
OCTOBER 3, 2011 AUTOWEEK 27

MIKE MARINO/HELIX CAMERA

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TEEN DRIVERS 2011

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right, MasterDrive promotes the view that its a skill. Its a psychomotor activity that involves both brain and body, much like playing a sport or a musical instrument. So its programs involve a lot of behind-the-wheel practice that Langford equates to driving camp. A parent might send a teen to a camp for his or her sport or instrument, Langford said, and what would you expect? That theyd spend the whole time sitting in a classroom taking tests in football theory? No! You expect them to get a full immersion experience. Likewise, MasterDrive students get a lot of driving time and coaching. While that program goes far beyond traditional driver education, dozens of alternative programs offer to teach young drivers skills they dont get from the established order. Tire Rack sponsors Street Survival, Ford has Driving Skills for Life, Toyota has Driving Expectations, and there are many more backed by auto-industry suppliers, insurance companies and educational outlets. When so many alternatives attempt to redress evident deficiencies, it would seem that we have cultural agreement that somethings amiss in the establishment. Jeff Payne, who exposes teens to emergency handling maneuvers in a traveling program he calls Drivers Edge, was a member of the group that helped NHTSA devise its new guide-

Teen Driving Statistics

Teen drivers make up a disproportionately large percentage of total crashes given their percentage of total drivers, NHTSA data show. But the number of fatal and nonfatal crashes is declining, as is the number of crashes involving teen drivers. For these data, teen drivers refers to those ages 15 to 20.

> teen drivers

MARK STOLBERG

In 2009, 5,148

were involved in fatal crashes, a 37 percent decrease from 2000.

> percent of all

drivers involved in fatal crashes were teens, and 14 percent of all drivers involved in police-reported crashes were teens.

In 2009, 11

> million licensed

drivers in the United States in 2008, 6.4 percent were 15-to20-year-olds, up 5.1 percent from 1999.

Of 208.3

> crashes are the

The MasterDrive (top) and Ford Driving Skills for Life (above) programs teach young drivers skills they might not get from traditional drivers-ed courses. While so many alternative programs seem to signal that reform is needed in drivers ed, change is slow to materialize. leading cause of death for 15-to-20-year-olds (2007, National Center for Health Statistics, most recent data available).

Motor-vehicle

> 2,742 teen

drivers died, and 228,000 were injured. In 2009, these numbers declined by 15 percent, to 2,336, and 14 percent, to 196,000.

In 2008,

lines. (Like Langford, Payne was a presenter at Autoweeks 2007 summit.) He said that the 100 participantsfrom traditional driver-education programs, for the most partwere well-meaning people. Few were drawn to the field without a serious concern for young people and safety. But they had no interest in radical reform. Bill Van Tassel, manager of drivertraining programs for the AAA and a member of the working group, alerted us to the NHTSA document initially. He said he found the discussion encouraging in that the safety establishment was interested in raising its standards. Still, he said, the inertia of the status quo means that working within the

system is, of necessity, a slow process. Langford remains skeptical. If you dont start from the premise that the system is broken, he said, youre not really going to fix it. He and others have grown weary of waiting for governments to act and are instead focused on private-enterprise solutions. Both Payne and Langford suggested that insurers might be the stakeholders that could do the most to force changes. In Colorado, teens who complete a course of study that matches the MasterDrive curriculum are eligible for an insurance discount. And theyve learned from coaches who have qualifications that go beyond the ability to fog a mirror. c

> percent of

In 2009, 15.2

teens involved in fatal crashes had invalid licenses. Of those, 31 percent also had previous license suspensions or revocations at the time of the crash.

> drivers killed in crashes had

a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher. Of those involved in fatal crashes, 24 percent had been drinking.

In 2009, 28 percent of young

OCTOBER 3, 2011 AUTOWEEK 29