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Free program Sunday teaches teens critical driving skills

"We're not teaching them how to drive, we're teaching them how to avoid crashes and stay alive."
Credit: KSDK

MADISON, Ill. — Teenagers can never get enough training when it comes to learning how to drive. That’s the idea behind B.R.A.K.E.S.

B.R.A.K.E.S stands for ‘Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe.’ It’s not Driver’s Ed, but rather a free, hands-on defensive driving program taught by professionals.

The national program is making its way to the St. Louis area Sunday with a session held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. Space is limited. Interested families can register online here.

Trainers will be on hand to teach new drivers about critical elements, like panic braking, over-steering and how to avoid a crash that’s ahead of you.

“At this point we’ve trained 30,000 teenagers all over the country in 40 states,” said B.R.A.K.E.S. founder Doug Herbert.

Herbert is a retired NHRA world champion who started the non-profit after his sons, Jon and James, died in a car accident in 2008. It’s the first time the free program has been in the St. Louis area.

B.R.A.K.E.S. stands for ‘Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe.’

“It would have been real easy to crawl into a hole and just do nothing but I thought that wouldn’t have been fair to my boys. Because I want to make sure that their life will make a difference,” said Herbert.

With the help of several professional instructors, Herbert’s team hits a new city each weekend to teach teens what Driver’s Ed may not: how to handle the car if a wheel drops off the side of the road, dealing with distracted driving, using anti-lock brakes, avoiding surprise obstacles, even how to keep control of the car under slick road conditions.

“We’re not teaching them how to drive. We’re teaching them how to avoid crashes and stay alive,” said Herbert.

The proactive driving school is open to teens ages 15-19 and says teens who have taken the B.R.A.K.E.S. training are 64 percent less likely to be involved in a crash. According to the CDC, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers.

“I think this sort of defensive driving program should be mandatory for every 16 year old driver,” said Patrick Elsner, a parent whose 15-year-old daughter was driving the program’s courses Saturday morning.

Herbert is happy to do anything he can to make the roads safer for teenagers across the country.

“Giving them the tools to save their own life is probably the most rewarding, best thing I’ve ever been able to do,” he said. “Hopefully make the roads around the St. Louis area a little safer. And hopefully keep some of these parents from getting that phone call that I got that their kids aren’t coming home.”

Learn more at PutOnTheBrakes.org.

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