ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609030003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
Laurie Shepherd sat patiently in her minivan in the Blacksburg High School parking lot, accustomed to the wait.
Eventually, a white car with a "Wright Way" sign across the roof slowly made its way to a nearby parking spot.
This is Shepherd's third child to jolt and brake through driver's education with David Wright.
"He is just so good with them, and so calm," she said.
She said she's chosen to pay the $175 to send her teens to Wright - rather than use the school's instructor program - because she trusts him. And it's much easier to schedule a student through private instructors, especially when the students are ready to go.
"She's chomping at the bit," Shepherd said of her daughter, Jennifer. "She's very confident. I'm not sure I would have let the others go at 15, but she seems ready."
As of last July, 15-year-olds are allowed to start driving with a learner's permit as long as there is an adult in the car.
That and other changes in state regulations have left private driving instructors scrambling to meet the demands. And while some say the changes place unnecessary burdens on them, other instructors say it makes sense, and business couldn't be better.
Changing the age teens can receive their learner's permit to 15, said Garland Linkous of EZ Driving School, forces the instructors to spend extra time working with students who may not have the experience or maturity to tackle driving.
Some 15-year-olds "understand what's going on, what they're supposed to do, but they just don't have the hand-eye coordination yet," Linkous said.
One law that has helped, instructors say, is the one passed this summer. Now, regardless of a person's age, students must have a learner's permit for six months before they can receive a driver's license.
Still, says Blacksburg Driver Training owner Steve Patterson, "it's not how long they have the learner's permit, it's what they do with it. There are some cases where probably [15-year-olds] get it too early, and they should have spread it out and practiced more."
Students must complete a classroom driving course, usually taken through the high school physical education curriculum, before taking what's often called behind-the-wheel instruction. Still, instructors say they inevitably teach some students who have never actually been behind a wheel.
"You can't teach them how to drive in seven days," said Wright, "but then you have to test them."
He's referring to the new law that switches the driving test from the Department of Motor Vehicles over to the instructors. Now, after the seven-day course is complete, driving instructors give the test. If students pass, they receive a yellow sheet of paper that serves as their driver's license until the official one arrives.
If they fail, instructors give the test again and again, usually free of charge. That, said Wright, results in extra time with no income.
Patterson said he felt a little uneasy giving the test, especially because most instructors were never trained by the state.
"To be quite honest, I just didn't want the responsibility to say they're ready to be on the road," he said.
But now, Patterson said, it makes sense. After spending 14 hours with a student, an instructor knows better than anyone if that teen is ready to drive.
Besides, said Southwest Virginia Driving School owner Pat Burns, kids love the freedom of being able to walk away from a course able to drive alone. And even though most instructors charge between $115 to $185, they say business continues to grow because kids want that yellow sheet as soon as they can.
Montgomery County Schools charged $100 this year for driver training courses, but only offers behind-the-wheel during the summer. Pulaski County does provide instruction year round, but students often have to wait for an available class.
Burns, who also teaches physical education at Pulaski County High School, said one benefit to private instructors is the flexibility.
"We're really good about driving when the students want to drive. If they're available at 9 at night, we'll drive at 9 at night," he said.
Then there's the experience. Wright, for example, has been driving for more than 20 years. He says he's never been in a major accident or harrowing driving experience with a student, just a few swerves off the road.
Still, he said, he uses the extra brake, conveniently placed by his foot on the passenger side, about once every class.
"After about four years, I just got kind of numb to it," he joked.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON STAFF David Wright, owner and operator ofby CNBWright Way, a private driving school in Blacksburg. Wright charges
teen-agers $175 to teach them to drive. color