It sounds good in theory: Send our most ruthless Turnpike terrorists through a battery of training courses that will teach them the dangers of their driving ways. I just wonder whether a program like the one being offered next week by the Ford Motor Company Fund is going to attract the kinds of reckless youth who need it the most.
But then I suppose if it saves just one accident... et cetera. The free training course, to be held Wednesday beginning at noon at the Homestead-Miami Speedway will school rookie road ragers in sevral key skill areas 1.) NOT treating the streets like a bull in a China shop, 2.) the art of NOT tailgating, 3.) proper handling of the parental unit's vehicle, and 4.) hazard recognition (aka stop texting and open your eyes).
Seeing as car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the country, Audrey Stone of Florida's Direct Impact for Ford Motor Company says the Miami classes are worth the trek for teen drivers in the Palm Beach area.
"I realize there is a bit of a distance between Palm Beach and Miami,"
Stone says. "I think parents and teens alike would feel the training
camp would be well worth the drive."
Top driving instructors
from around the nation are being called in to hold the four mini
seminars. Even Colin Braun, 20-year-old NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series driver is racing to the November 18 training event. From one
maniac driver to another, Braun says there's a time and place to race,
and it's not on our roadways.
"I learned early on there is a
time and place for driving fast, but public roads are not it," Braun
says. "I hope my involvement will make a difference teaching young
drivers how to be safer on the road."
For more info or to register a teen driver, visit drivingskilsforlife.com (registration page here) or call (888) 987-8765
