Training Daze

An effort to curb teen driving deaths & injuries partners with LEOs to make a difference

As LEOs, we're sometimes called upon to investigate horrific vehicle crashes. I'm sure I haven't been the only one to wonder whether the EVOC training we receive, and I teach, might have benefited the crash victims we can no longer save. Could training have saved their lives? What if we'd gotten to them when they first started driving and taught them what we know?

Too often, the causes of fatal or serious injury crashes can be traced back to simple attributable causes such as inattention to driving, speed too fast for conditions and lack of proper training. The last one is critical, something addressed (hopefully) in depth during our academy EVOC days and subsequent in-service training days. As they say, you don't know what you don't know. Our EVOC training taught us that while we thought we knew how to drive, we really didn't until our eyes were opened on the track.

A Too-Common Scenario

Teenagers are no different in this regard. It's a dangerous mindset magnified further by the consequences of human development in the teenage years—a potentially deadly combination of perceived invincibility and inexperience.

Doug Herbert, the second driver ever to go over 300 mph on the drag strip, and winner of more than 30 IHRA and NHRA Top Fuel dragster events, lost both of his sons in a tragic head-on collision in January 2008. Sadly, while Herbert confined his high-speed runs to the professional race track, his teenage son, Jon, didn't practice the same restraint that January day, killing himself and his younger brother James.

Nobody would have blamed Herbert for excusing himself from public view and recoiling into recovery mode, but he and his family, hearts heavy, decided to fight back. They joined with former classmates of Jon and James to develop BRAKES—Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe—a non-profit teen driver training program that uses professional driving, racing and LE instructors to teach young drivers critical driver skills and thinking processes through their Advanced Teen Pro-Active driving course.

The course is free to students, and parents are required to attend and are even encouraged to participate in the exercises. The four-hour block of training includes a ground school, a crash avoidance exercise, ABS braking, a distracted driving course, two-wheel off-road recovery exercise and a skid control course. The courses are modeled after Department of Transportation (DOT) information identifying primary causes of collisions, and students are split into groups of up to 12 that rotate through each exercise as the day progresses.

In 2008, the organization trained approximately 40 students, but has grown exponentially to conduct events on both coasts and multiple states as far as away as Alaska. As of December 2013, the program has successfully trained more than 10,000 teen drivers. That figure is astounding when considering the organization—headed by Herbert and run by veteran racer/instructor Matt Reilly—started in a high school classroom just five years ago.

The figure is also remarkable enough to have garnered the full attention of KIA Motors, who believes so much in the program that they signed on in 2013 as the official vehicle and presenting sponsor, providing support and a fleet of more than 30 brand-new KIAs for training future students. The efforts also attracted the attention of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the California Highway Patrol and many other EMS and public safety entities.

So why the interest? And why the approval of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP) for BRAKES to be the only teen driver training program allowed full use of their EVOC training facilities? Plain and simple. We see far too many fatal crashes involving teens. Stem the tide through proper training, and the incidence of crashes goes down. Anecdotal evidence garnered from the many thousands of BRAKES graduates has produced countless stories of how the training has prevented a crash where a teen driver plainly stated that they would have previously been unable to avoid. It's this kind of evidence that attracted the NCSHP to get more involved, and why it could be the perfect next community project for your agency to get involved with.

The NCHP Steps Up

When it comes right down to it, according to NCSHP's public information officer, Master Sgt. Jeff Gordon, too many teens were getting into trouble on North Carolina's roadways. In 2012, the NCSHP investigated 9,503 injury collisions and 111 fatal collisions where the drivers were 15–19 years old. Moreover, 33 teenage drivers lost their lives on North Carolina highways and—despite a 34% decrease when compared to the previous year—teen injuries and deaths continue at a level that the patrol felt it important to get involved.

In talking with Gordon, we discussed the typical objection when it comes to using facilities by private/non-profit entities: liability. Sgt. Gordon says the same concerns were raised when the topic was first discussed within the agency. But with proper discussion and vetting of all issues—plus the unwavering support of Colonel William Grey, Commander of the NCSHP—it was approved.

Herbert's Top Fuel dragster was displayed as part of the official NCSHP display at the N.C. State Fair this past October, and the group was allowed to use the agency's EVOC facility in Raleigh for two classes held this past November. According to Gordon, another key motivator for involvement was to promote department interaction with the community, and allow officers to talk directly with teens and their parents to establish rapport and educate them on safe driving practices and other topics. In the future, the plan is to have NCSHP EVOC instructors as part of the BRAKES instructor core when events are held in North Carolina.

I can add that, as an EVOC instructor for 23 years, and a BRAKES instructor for the last 4 years, the disciplines taught at the course make sense, hit the major areas of concern for young drivers (and their parents, as they also need to learn the skills) and definitely make an impact on students. It also makes an impact on parents and exemplifies why LE involvement makes so much sense from a public relations and crash prevention standpoint.

The agency plans on continuing the relationship on 2014, with classes set for Spring in Raleigh, N.C., and more pending.

More Opportunity for Involvement

The bold steps of the NCSHP show that the liability gremlins can be tamed, and it is possible to utilize agency or government-run driver training facilities for private use in a manner that is beneficial to an agency on many fronts. Since BRAKES is a 501 (C-3) non-profit, the support of companies like KIA, Starbucks, Mother's Polishes, Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, NHRA, Hendrick Cars, UPS, Z-MAX Dragway and others certainly helps keep the program going. It also adds legitimacy to the program, which could prove critical in garnering support from your command staff should you want to bring BRAKES to your community to help combat localized teen driver deaths and injuries, as well as improve public relations.

According to Matt Reilly, Director of BRAKES, involvement by the NCSHP, the CHP and other agencies has been vital in delivering the message from public safety agencies that they care about the community and keeping teen drivers and their parents safer and out of crashes. For 2014, BRAKES is scheduled to conduct classes in many more states.

High schools and even individual parents have raised the funding in the past to bring BRAKES to their local high school or hometown, so the opportunities for an agency to co-
sponsor a local event, and/or even provide a training location are certainly there. Furthermore, the NCSHP proved that the process works and they can be a valuable resource for resolving any potential roadblocks if you see BRAKES as a great community project in 2014.

Summary

More than 5,000 teenagers die, and 400,000 more are injured, each year on our roadways, including the ones you patrol. EVOC training in the academy has helped keep you alive, and we all know traditional driver education in schools and elsewhere does little, if anything, to prevent the carnage. There are other teen driver programs out there. But BRAKES has more than 10,000 graduates, and a successful track record with law enforcement. It might be the next project for your agency's community policing needs.