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Tennessee: Teen drivers

By: Kevin Cummings
(Contact)

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Brad Bennett

As a new flock of teenage drivers hits the roads this year, some will be better prepared and safer because they hit the books at school.

Brad Bennett teaches driver education at Bradley Central High School in Cleveland, Tenn. He said the first three weeks of the course are spent in the classroom learning basics like rules of the road, attitude and awareness.

“The single most important factor in teenage driving is their attitude,” he said. “Their attitude goes a long way in how they drive.”

Mr. Bennett said he teaches teens to be assertive and courteous when driving but not passive or aggressive.

After the book studies, the first real driving experiences at Bradley Central take place in the school parking lot, then move to country driving and then to driving in a city environment.

Even though he has a brake on his side of the car, Mr. Bennett said his job with new drivers can test the nerves.

“It’s usually the students that have the most experience that you’re scared the most with,” he said. “They’re a little more aggressive in the driver’s seat, where someone just starting out is a little passive.”

Driver education can be an expensive course for school systems to offer, but it can bring valuable rewards.

Because of the benefits, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in Georgia has been distributing substantial grants to school systems to help foot the bill.

The office last week awarded Dalton (Ga.) High School a $131,000 grant for new and improved driving equipment and training, including new driving simulators (to replace models that are three-decades old), additional driver instructor training, and a new car for the program.

According to Bob Dallas, director for the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and the vice chairman of the Georgia Drivers Education Commission, about $2.3 million in grants will be distributed to Georgia high school to assist with driving programs.

Gordon County, Ga., Schools also received a $134,000 grant this year, but Mr. Dallas said the grants vary in size from a high of $140,000 to as low as $7,000.

Dalton High assistant principal Steve Bartoo said the grant is a major boost to his school’s program, especially when costs are forcing some systems to shut down their programs or keeping them from opening one.

Walker County, Ga., Schools is one of the systems that does not offer driver education.

Elaine Womack, spokeswoman for the school system, said drivers ed is cost- and space prohibitive for the county system’s two high schools.

Chickamauga City Schools does offer instruction through a virtual driving program that was paid for with a grant.

Completion of an approved driver education program is required for a 16-year-old to get a driver’s license in Georgia, and the computerized virtual classes are an accepted form of training in the state.

Ms. Womack said Walker County students are made aware of the availability of virtual driving classes at the Cherokee Regional Library System in LaFayette, Ga., and training classes at Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring, Ga.

The Whitfield County, Ga., Schools is another local system that doesn’t offer drivers ed.

But Eric Beavers, spokesman for the system, said technology such as the virtual training, and private driver education courses make the instruction readily available outside of the school.

“We recognize the value of driver education and appreciate the state of Georgia’s efforts to support driver education on the Internet,” Mr. Beavers said. “The state Department of Driver Services has approved several online venues that are able to deliver instruction in a more cost-effective manner than our teachers could in the classroom.”

Tennessee doesn’t require a drivers ed course for teens seeking a license, but does have a graduated license program which mandates that teen drivers go through two stages of restricted driving before being able to earn an unrestricted license when they’re 17.

Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble said he thinks drivers education is a good idea to offer in the public school systems.

“It does make a difference,” Sheriff Gobble said. “Our traffic unit goes to all three high schools (in Bradley County) and supplements that with a traffic safety program, as well.”

He said a commonly known statistic is that the No. 1 cause of death in young people is traffic accidents. And the biggest factor in causing teen wrecks is speeding, he said, followed by the contributing factors of drugs and alcohol.

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