A Little Fear Could Save Your Teen's Life

I picked up an RBM of Atlanta North newsletter and noticed their endorsement of a driving course for teens and parents called Fear This. 

We took the course last year and we are doing it again this summer. Here's why...

covering the toughest challenges facing teen drivers. The majority of the class takes place behind the wheel to address the number one killers of inexperienced drivers -- over correction, distracted driving and excessive speed.

"Each year we lose between 5,000 and 6,000 teens to fatal crashes, and another 250,000 seriously injured from the crash they survived. Injuries can range from cuts and breaks to being confined to a wheelchair for life," said Fear This President, Woodrow Gaines. "We have good kids making fatal errors because they were never properly trained."

Fear This puts teens in the driver's seat for some sticky situations they are likely to face through the next several years. Teens under the close supervision of certified police academy instructors drive their cars in scenarios far outside their typical comfort zone. There's a serpentine course, a threshold-breaking exercise for getting used to how anti-lock brakes feel and an off-road recovery drill.   

Fear This is recognized by the Forsyth County Juvenile Court, the Alpharetta City Mayor's Office, the Sandy Springs Court and the John's Creek Court among many other county court systems. Many teens are mandated through Georgia's courts to pass and certify through Fear This before regaining their driver's license after a speeding ticket.

Other teens take Fear This to keep themselves from becoming another statistic. "I knew this course would test my fears and it did, I learned how to stay calm and keep my control behind the wheel," said Joe Berry, a 16 year-old driver from Cumming.

"I also learned there are some teen drivers who don't have any fear about speeding at all, and that can be deadly when they get out on the road. This course helps teens realize that a little fear means having the kind of caution that can save your life," added Berry.

For parents, it's intense to see their teens learning and experiencing what happens when excessive speed outweighs their ability to maintain control. Parents also participate in the drills and it's eye-opening to gain new insight to the challengers of driving on today's roads. The controlled environment through Fear This and its superior instruction from academy officers gives parents piece of mind as their teens perform the drills.

The challenges detail how teens can avoid the common tendency to over correct or be coerced by peers to speed.

Instruction also addresses less-known safety tips that save lives, such as stopping and remaining behind an intersection stop-line instead of rolling into the middle of it to initiate a left-hand turn.

"Most people are never educated on the fact that when they linger in the middle of an intersection waiting to execute a left-hand turn, they become a sitting duck for anything that might go wrong with other cars at that intersection," said Gaines. "The outcome can be anything from a fender-bender to a deadly pile-up." 

So parents, while we all do our best to put the odds in our child's favor for safe driving, I can honestly say from first-hand experience that I have not yet come across a driving school that covers the nitty-gritty quite like Fear This.

I also know it's essential to repeat and reinforce the things my teen needs to know to keep himself safe on the road, so yes, we're geared up to Fear This--again!

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Editor's note: This article was originally published on Cumming Patch.