Car Crashes are the number one killer of teenagers today. In an effort to reduce these fatalities, Ford Motor Company Fund and the Governors Highway Safety Association have joined forces to implement a national, award winning program called Driving Skills for Life. Randy Bleicher (Bly-shur) leads a team of professional drivers, including former NASCAR and Indy 500 race car drivers, that teaches teens life-saving skills that go beyond basic drivers training.
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"Yeah, it's a little different type of drivers training. We're in an environment where we can do, oversteer skids, we can work on various manuevers that require extra space in case something goes wrong. It just gives us that extra edge with the room we have and the space we have." :14 sec. |
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Beicher says teen drivers do not have enough experience to know what a vehicle is capable of, or what they as-a-driver, are capable of doing when confronted with a split second decision. |
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"Well I think some of them are surprised by the input they can give to the car and still maintian control with the proper instruction." :07 sec. |
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One of the driving elements addressed by Driving Skills for Life is a hands-on exercise, of what can happen when a driver is distracted.
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"We talk a lot about distraction and of course distraction with speed management is a hugh factor , so they also recognize that is a problem, they talk about their cell phones and they laugh about it, but they do know and it is a problem and it's becoming more to the front so that they're aware of it." :12 sec. |
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Bleicher was quick to point out that Driving Skills for Life goes well beyond typical driver education programs by giving the teenager more choices to handle the unexpected. |
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It does give them some more tools and make them more aware of their abilities and the cars abilities and things that they need to do so they don't panic in those situation hopefully, they , they atleast have an idea of what to do so they can maintain control." :11 sec. |
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Michael Prince, Director of Highway Safety with the Governors Highway Safety Association says state governments will be able to create teen-safe driving campaigns thanks to the Ford Fund's $200,000 in grants to nine states and two U.S. territories in 2008. |
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"These mini-grants that the Ford Fund is offering the states are being put to very good use by the states and it's allowing the states to replicate this program in a smaller scale. Michigan will be doing that this summer through the Michigan State Police to offer kind of a mini camp which would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Ford Motor Fund and so we're very anxious to see how that turns out in July." :24 sec. |
