Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993 TAG: 9302020244
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A DRIVE TO ELIMINATE FATAL MISTAKES
The day was typical Southwest Virginia wintry - chilly, clear, bright and sunny. The parking lot at the Salem Civic Center was smooth and bone dry. Yet, my car had just gone into a wild tailspin and was now hurtling at what felt like 80 miles per hour toward a light post.Easing up on the brake and using a long-forgotten shuffle-steering technique, I steered opposite the direction of the spin. The car straightened, smoothed and came back under my control.
"Great," said the instructor controlling the electronic box that had simulated my icy skid. "You handled that real well."
Before the day ended, I and four classmates participating in the first session of the new Decisive Driving Car Control course would react to varying degrees of skids ("vehicle traction loss"), as well as locked brakes and sudden detours. The goal was to help us make the right reactive decisions should we encounter the real thing.
Our day began, not behind the wheel of a car, but inside a civic center meeting room. Kenley Smith, president of Car Guys Inc., the Roanoke-based company offering the training, lectured.
His wife, Belinda Anderson, and instructors Corinna Duncan and Norman Washer Jr. helped operate the simulation equipment and gave hands-on instruction.
The class consisted of a Roanoke County policeman, who often runs into bad road conditions on his midnight shift; a photocopier repairman who works a wide territory and whose company is considering sending all its drivers through the training; a Department of Motor Vehicles supervisor whose job includes giving classroom training and reconstructing what happened during fatal crashes; and another writer who, like me, drives as part of her work.
Smith flashed two newspaper clippings on an overhead projection screen. Both recounted fatal crashes in which the victims made the wrong decisions and lost control of their cars.
"Wearing seat belts and eliminating driving by those impaired by alcohol or drugs are givens in promoting safer driving," said Smith. "But we also need to eliminate uninformed driving and give people the information and training they need to make intelligent, informed decisions in operating their vehicles.
"Common sense doesn't always translate into good driving. Good drivers aren't born; they're trained."
Some of what Smith taught was right out of basic driver's education: Slow down; take reasonable precautions to reduce risks; you can't change weather or road-surface conditions; keep your eyes up and moving; scan the big picture; leave yourself an escape path; make sure others see you.
But for most of the participants, driver's ed was taken a long time ago, and the class reactivated useful memories especially on the proper handling of a steering wheel.
Lectures and illustrations of the physical dynamics of acceleration and braking or tire-to-road ratio under varying circumstances was just in-depth enough to help explain why things occur.
And for the car-care novice that I am, some hints were particularly helpful. For example, Smith explained, brake fluid needs to be changed annually because it loses its potency to moisture; seat belts need to be completely replaced after a crash; or lug nuts should be periodically checked for tightness.
Smith's statement that sometimes you need to step on the throttle to get out of a bad situation went against my basic instinct to brake for trouble. But the simulations proved that he was right.
He also simplified the concept of steering opposite from a spin - something that I as a self-diagnosed directional dyslexic have never been able to do.
"You will drive toward whatever you're looking at," he explained. "People run into trees and The Car Guys Inc. Decisive Driving Car Control Program costs $150. For schedules and information, call 772-1517. poles because they focus on them. So just look and steer in the direction you want to go."
Smith said that unlike traditional defensive-driving classes - which are all classroom theory - decisive driving includes hands-on training and practical application of the theory. With that, he directed us out to the parking lot and the simulated "real world."
Half the class climbed into our personal vehicles and drove onto the "accident avoidance" course. There, a combination of strategically placed pylons, chalk markings and three electronically controlled traffic lights helped us sharpen our focal-point skills, react to changes in lane accessibility, learn how to avoid a brake lock up and what to do if one occurred.
The real star of the show, though, was the "slide car" - a Mercury Sable on casters.
Using an electronic control box, the instructor could hydraulically raise either or both ends of the car and reduce traction by transfering weight from the car's tires to the casters on its supporting frame.
The car could simulate difficult handling situations at speeds as low as 10 mph, and most of us probably never topped 20 mph on the training course. But the car made it feel faster.
In a sudden swerve or spin, the 20 mph felt more like 100 and showed just how quickly and unexpectedly a life-or-death situation can arise. There was no time to weigh alternatives. You had to decide what to do and do it.
The Fall 1992 Car Guys' newsletter cited statistics showing that traffic accidents are the leading killer of all Americans ages 6-33 and the leading cause of epilepsy and para/quadriplegia. It also said crashes are the No. 1 killer of American workers, comprising more than 30 percent of all employee deaths.
Still, Smith said, the decisive-driving program is much harder to sell than are the high-performance driving workshops Car Guys Inc. has offered since it opened about four years ago.
"The high performance is fun. But people don't think they need help for everyday driving. People think they're good drivers," he said.
My classmates and I thought we were good drivers. But during the simulations we'd each made mistakes that on the road could have been fatal.
We learned - the easy way - that in a bad situation, good might not be good enough.