Over the weekend we had the chance to instruct at the TireRack.com Street Survival program sponsored by the Arlington Rotary & First Coast BMW CCA. This program entails classroom exercise as well as hands-on educational driving experiences on a closed course. With motor vehicle crashes being the leading cause of death among 13-19 year olds in the U.S., we were more than willing to contribute to a program geared towards combating that unfortunate fact.
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Our time assisting and instructing in the program took place at a local Public Safety Academy in St. Augustine, Florida, where many local firefighters and city officials are familiar with receiving their field training in the confides of a closed course. Our time with the teens enrolled in the Street Survival program involved us giving instructions to each driver through, a wet skidpad, two ABS braking zones, slalom, and emergency lane-changes. Each of the exercises demonstrated to the student several factors that take place in milliseconds during potential evasive maneuvers they may experience on the road. Even though our track speed never surpassed 50 mph, the student received a full understanding of their vehicle being out of control, the limits of its handling abilities where stability and traction control step-in heavily, and the full extent of emergency braking on vehicles equipped with ABS. Additionally, a demonstration of semi-trucks’ limited visibility was made clear and the potential dire consequences of not respecting the spacing of these large trucks on the highway and interstate.
Even though many students didn’t want to be in the program (some were even forced by parents to take the course), at the end, many of them walked away with open eyes in their amazement of how quickly dangerous situations may arise on the road. I can say with a certainty, each student enrolled in this program will be a safer driver utilizing better situational awareness and retain the ability to act accordingly in emergency situations in their own vehicle. Moreover, the classroom activities reiterated the growing problem of distracted driving with texting and driving becoming a serious epidemic on the road today.
With a better understanding of knowing how effective the program is, we at AutomotiveAddicts.com strongly encourage parents with teens new to driving or those teens who may need to be set on a new path to better driving, to enroll in the Street Survival program. It could save their life or the life of someone else.
