Lack of advanced driver training a major cause of collisions
There’s a picture accompanying this column today. Look at it closely. Very closely. It is of a mid-1950s “traffic clinic” that police forces all over North America offered to teenagers who were about to get their licences. You had to be 15 to sign up and those traffic clinics taught you the rules of the road, highway courtesy and general automotive etiquette. And it was free. Some of the clinics used a simulator called a Drivotrainer (although there were other names for it), which came with a steering wheel and pedals for the gas, brake and clutch. A movie was played on a screen at the front of the room simulating a real-life driving experience, complete with some cars and trucks drifting over white lines on highways and getting in your way and others going through stop signs and crashing right in front of you.
Your machine would record your reaction time if you had to stop suddenly and it would “grade” you on your ability to steer the “car” correctly and speed up or slow down, according to conditions.
It helped prepare me for the day I turned 16 and went to get my licence, which you could do in Ontario in those days. Although I already knew how to drive — simply by having watched my father drive from the time I was three or four — I decided to give it a shot because, even at that young age, I figured if something that might help me get what I wanted was being offered, particularly for free, why not take advantage?
I have been driving for many years since. I have never had an “at-fault” accident. But that is because I continue to “work” at it, to not speed (any more than everybody else speeds, it seems) and to check my mirrors before doing anything, and so-on. I fear I’m in the minority.
We leave the house for work every morning around 7. Even though I don’t drive on any of the highways during our commute, I’m fascinated by the radio traffic reports, about how the 400 is backed up to Barrie every morning (and I mean every morning) and there is either a crash involving several cars or a transport-truck rollover or whatever has traffic snarled either eastbound on the 401 or westbound.
I’m sure it’s the same on the highways around Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg, Vancouver or any other mid- to large-size municipality in the country.
According to the latest Transport Canada statistics — 2016, by the way — there were 160,000 traffic crashes that resulted in 1,717 deaths. There were 115,956 personal injuries, of which 10,322 were considered serious (admission to hospital). And it’s that last statistic that drives former Wheels columnist and driving expert Gary Magwood bonkers.
“If you’re dead, that’s it — it’s over,” said the former Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic racer and racing school instructor during a conversation we had by phone the other day.
“But think of the injuries, year-after-year, and what being hurt is doing to those people and what it’s all doing to our health system. I mean, we have to look after people.”
Magwood, who lives near Tweed, north of Belleville, has long thought that most driver’s ed. and driving school courses leave out a critical instruction when teaching people to drive: how to regain control of an out-of-control car. And driving tests should include a panic situation, as well. If you don’t know how to control a car in a skid, you shouldn’t have a licence, he says. Magwood knows of what he speaks. For years during the last two decades of the previous century, he was organizer and lead instructor of the Labatt Road Scholarship, which visited more than 70 university and community colleges across Canada. He and his fellow instructors taught thousands of young people who were already licensed for the road how to get themselves out of trouble. More important, they taught them how not to get into trouble in the first place.
“Labatt was looking for a way to get the drinking and driving message across and contacted me,” Magwood said. “One thing led to another and the Road Scholarship — really an advanced driving course — emerged. Ford came across with the cars and Bridgestone provided the tires and it worked really well for years. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and they learned something they hadn’t been exposed to before.
“It ran from September till March, when everybody was in school. I used local race drivers to do the instructing — I showed them how to do it — and so it worked out for everybody. The parents sent us letters to thank us and the testimonials came in for years, even after the program ended.”
But this was also where Magwood’s frustration kicked in.
“We got the Ontario minister of transportation to agree take the course,” he said, “and he brought along his staff. You know, when a car goes out of control, it’s human nature to look in the direction the car is going. It can be going toward a pole, or another car, or a person, but that’s where you look and that’s where you go.
“We teach people to look in the direction they should go, so that they can regain control and avoid crashing. It’s not that hard a concept, it just takes understanding. The minister got going and went into a spin (they were on a skid pad) and hit the pylons. So did his staff. But then they caught on. It was like they all saw the light, and they started to control the car and miss the pylons. Everybody got excited about the possibilities — teach people how to drive correctly and cut down on accidents and save lives and injuries and save money.
“So they left and they said we were going to have meetings and two weeks later it was over. Nothing. It’s almost as if nobody’s interested in really doing something about this.”
Magwood acknowledged that technology is changing — or will change — the way people drive. Nissan has Pro-Pilot Assist, for instance, and Subaru has its EyeSight Advanced Driver Assist System. In fact, just about every automaker out there has some form of driver assistance. Be that as it may, technology or not, people will still be sitting behind a steering wheel for a long time to come and if that’s the case, they should still know how to get themselves out of a jam.
“Until the day comes when the traffic reports say there are no collisions on highways anywhere, there will be a need for advanced driving skills,” Magwood said. “Too many people are still dying and getting hurt, and until that changes through training and testing, we will never get a handle on the problem.”
Now, remember at the beginning of this piece, I suggested you take a close look at the photo? Well, I can’t be a thousand per cent positive, so let’s just say 100 per cent, because that nerdy guy with the glasses in the middle of the front row sure looks like me when I was 15. Or else I have a doppelganger. The traffic clinic I attended was in Niagara Falls, Ont. They did stories in the local paper, the Review. But police forces all over conducted them at that time — there were very few driving schools — and so the photo could have been taken anywhere. Who knows?
But one thing I’m sure about is that the time I spent at that traffic clinic was invaluable. I was as fast as Stirling Moss when I had to hit the brake (one young officer-instructor told me I would be a “very good driver”) and one reason I have always behaved myself on the road is because one session featured a great big, gruff, burly giant of a cop who scared the living daylights out of those of us in class by saying, “If I ever catch any of you speeding or driving recklessly, I WILL ARREST YOU AND PUT YOU IN JAIL!!!!” Whoa! OK, then. I got the message in the 1950s. Many more people have got to get that very same message today. And there’s a way. Just ask Gary Magwood.
All we’re missing is the will.