Real driver training

Last week three more Central Oregon teens died in an automobile accident. Initial reports indicated that they weren't traveling too fast, but that the driver simply lost control of the car.

The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office has created a class to reduce this carnage. Titled "Drive to Survive," the four-hour course is now available to the general public. It has been used in the past to train local deputies and school bus drivers.

Bruce Combs is the lead instructor. A former trainer with the Oregon State Police Bureau of Standards and training, Combs spent four months developing a curriculum that includes a slick hour-long computerized presentation on why vehicles do what they do.

But the real action takes place outside, on a new skid pad with a retired patrol car on a $45,000 Swedish-built skid frame.

With the frame, the patrol car can be lightened so that the tires barely kiss the pavement, replicating slick and icy road conditions or driving at speed.

On a Sunday at the end of February, two teens took the course. Driving habits changed dramatically over the course of the morning.

At first, when the drivers started to slide, they hit the brakes. The slide quickly got worse and the car would spin out of control.

"Sometimes, the best thing to do is simply less of what you were doing," explained Combs. In this case, that meant getting gently off the brakes, straightening out the steering wheel and adding a light amount of throttle.

"Look where you want to go," said Combs. The hands, and then the car, will follow the eyes. This simplifies the task of recovery. It is the same advice but much easier to follow than the "turn into the spin" recommendation once offered to drivers.

For a common cause of fatal accidents, drifting off the side of the road followed by an over-correction into oncoming traffic, Combs told the students to very gently return the car to the pavement.

A sudden yank on the wheel or sudden stab of the brakes is almost certain to result in a loss of control, with tragic consequences.

Of course, no class on driver safety would be complete without some comments on how to avoid accidents in the first place. Combs emphasized the fact that "most collisions are the result of poor decision making.

"Skills by themselves are not enough. We can't teach you not to be stupid."

Drivers need to be aware that distractions, such as animated discussions with other passengers, eating, and cell phone use can dramatically reduce a driver's "field of awareness" by as much as 70 percent. These distractions are most dangerous to new drivers.

Combs also showed how someone driving at night can be lulled by reflective signs into thinking they can see objects in time to stop. Deer, which depend in the wild on their camouflage, can remain invisible at night right on the highway until it is often too late.

"Over 90 percent of drivers 'overdrive' their headlights," Combs said, because it takes nearly 201 feet to react and stop a car at night, while headlights have a range of about 190 feet on low beam.

"Bad things can happen to good drivers who make bad decisions," Combs said.

Just going down a slight grade can double the distance it takes to stop a car. This became obvious on the skid pad, where one end of the pavement has a slight dip. That is where the car regularly went into a spin.

Sheriff Greg Brown would like to expand the course, adding more instructors and acquiring another skid frame, perhaps one to put under an SUV, a popular type of vehicle in Central Oregon. Brown believes the course can be self-supporting, and is developing a business plan before asking Deschutes County to back a small business loan for the expansion.

After their session both of the teen drivers said they felt the course had improved their skills. The proof was in how they were able guide the sliding patrol car between tightly spaced cones.

Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly improves the odds.