Driver’s Edge success cited

Dan Kulin

Friday, March 12, 2004 | 8:22 a.m.

A driving program that teaches teens how to get through skidding on wet roads and other road skills is gearing up for another season with a sense of accomplishment.

The Las Vegas-based Driver's Edge program starts another year of classes Saturday, and the program's founder says they now have evidence the program works.

Based on follow-up surveys of 2,000 Las Vegas teens who have gone through the program since it began in June 2002, Driver's Edge founder Jeff Payne said the program's alumni average 8.24 collisions annually per 100 drivers.

That compares with a survey of 1,000 teens who have not gone through the program that showed those teen drivers averaged 16.46 collisions annually per 100 drivers, Payne said.

All of the teens surveyed said the program gave them more respect for driving, 80 percent said the program helped them avoid an accident on the highway, and 60 percent of those who had an accident said what they learned in the program kept their accidents from being worse, Payne said.

"It's definitely working. We've got thousands of e-mails and letters from kids saying, 'Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you,' " Payne said.

About 6,000 teens across the country have been through the program, including 2,000 from the Las Vegas area. The four-hour program includes classroom time and a skidding exercise done locally on watered-down pavement at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The program is taught by former race-car drivers, such as Payne.

Payne said he started the program because he was frustrated hearing that wet-weather accidents involving teens were often blamed on the teens' reckless driving. But Payne thinks the problem really is that teens, like other drivers, are never taught how to drive in difficult conditions.

"None of us are taught how to drive. We're just taught how to pass a test," Payne said, adding that he also hoped to "erase the video game mentality" that some younger drivers have when they are on the road.

The program is offered for free to teens with a learner's permit or license. This year classes will be offered in Las Vegas on several dates, including Saturday, March 27 and 28, May 1 and 2, June 12 and 13, Sept. 18 and 19, Oct. 16 and 17, and Dec. 4 and 5.

The program will be offered in Reno July 8-11.

To register for the program visit the program's website at driversedge.org or call Driver's Edge at 896-6482.

Payne said he hopes 4,000 teens will go through the program this year.

Driver's Edge costs more than $200,000 a year to put on, Payne said.