Danger ahead! Teen drivers learn skills to avoid crashing.

Byline: Priyanka Dayal

Massachusetts has ramped up its requirements for license-seeking teenagers, but some think the standards don't do nearly enough to prepare young drivers for the dangers of the road.

"We don't take driving really seriously in a lot of states," said Dan Strollo, president of In Control Advanced Driver Training.

In Control, based in Wilmington, offers a driver skills class for teenagers and others that includes high-speed braking and swerving maneuvers. The course, which costs $299 without a discount, goes well beyond what is covered in a typical road lesson.

"We can't change teens from thinking they're invincible," Mr. Strollo said. "We're scaring them a bit in some cases, and giving them the skills to get themselves out of trouble."

The course, offered at Worcester Regional Airport and other locations, lasts four and a half hours. It puts teens - and sometimes their parents - in the driver's seat, teaching them how to control vehicles at highway speeds on empty, sprawling stretches of pavement, such as abandoned or little-used airport runways. The instructors all have racing experience. It is the only certified "driver skills development program" that operates regularly in Massachusetts, and many insurance companies offer discounts to students who pass.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles has many requirements for teen drivers, but it doesn't require they take driver skills courses.

"That's a decision that parents and students have to make," RMV spokeswoman Ann Dufresne said. "It's more intensive training. It wouldn't hurt. The more training you have, the safer we're all going to be on the roadways."

The course includes exercises that can't be done on regular roads. "Because you're doing it on a big open space, there's nothing you can bump into," Mr. Strollo said.

The drills are designed to mimic real-life situations, teaching students how to swerve safely out of the way of an obstacle on the road, and why tailgating is dangerous.

"Look where you want to go," instructor Linda Kogan told 16-year-old Kevin Burt, as he gripped the wheel at a recent session at the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth. "The speedometer is good for making sure you're following the speed limit. If you feel things are getting uncomfortable, slow down, even if you're going 30."

Most of the students who showed up at the South Weymouth class, with their permits and their parents, looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Most of them didn't expect the adrenaline they felt after getting behind the wheel of a Camry, flooring the accelerator, then slamming on the brakes until the car, pulsing and throbbing, came to a halt.

"Some of them don't want to be here at all, but usually, when we do that first braking exercise, the smiles come on," Ms. Kogan said.

The instructors ask students to repeat the drills until they get it. If they're still shaky after a few tries, students are asked to come back for more training another day.

"It's something I have felt strongly about for years. There isn't enough training for young people," said Ms. Kogan, who lives in Douglas. "We need driver's ed, but we also have to teach them how not to crash."

Nick J. Mauch, 20, of Southboro, took In Control's course a few months ago, even though he's had his license for more than three years. "You can always use more driving experience," he said. "Who wouldn't want to skid cars and maneuver and do things that could help you get out of a situation?"

After taking the course, he said, he started slowing down during wet weather and around turns.

In Control has trained more than 9,000 students since launching its course in 2003. The company's main competition, Mr. Strollo said, is simply apathy. The RMV lists two other companies with certified driver skills development programs. Stevens Advanced Driver Training, based in New Hampshire, used to offer classes in Massachusetts but stopped operating in the state after July.

The company is looking for training space in Massachusetts so it can offer courses here again next year, said office manager Karen Berube. The other company, Driven School of Advanced Driver Training, based in Adams, does not list any upcoming courses on its Web site and does not appear to have a working phone line.

In this region the Central Massachusetts Safety Council in West Boylston trains 3,000 teenage drivers a year. The safety council offers one of the best-known driver's education programs in the area, which includes Skidz School, a hands-on class that teaches students to handle skidding and other emergency situations. Students drive into a giant puddle as an instructor in the passenger seat pulls the emergency brake, inducing a violent 180-degree skid. Then students learn how to steer into the skid to control it.

In Control says that's a dangerous strategy. So does Michael W. Christo, co-owner of Christo Driving School in Marlboro. "Very rarely will anyone be riding through a wet track," he said. "It falsifies what real skidding feels like."

Mr. Christo's driving school recommends teen students take In Control's course, and offers a discount to those who do. "It blows their mind," he said.

His brother, Christopher G. Christo, another owner of the driving school and a former Marlboro police officer, said he has taken every driver skills course in Massachusetts and that In Control is the best. He doesn't approve of Skidz School.

"Having a teenager go through a puddle at 30, 40 miles per hour and then cranking up the emergency brake might (make them) overconfident to drive or to play around with the vehicle," he said. "Teenagers learn it on a closed course so they assume they can do it on the main road ... A lot can go wrong in a matter of seconds."

Frank Riseden of Worcester, an instructor at the Central Massachusetts Safety Council, said there's no way to control what teens do on the streets.

"It's a tough world out there. When accidents happen, they happen quickly," he said during a recent lesson at the safety council. "Once kids leave our environment here there's nothing we can do."

The safety council also offers a comprehensive course called Advanced Driver Training, which includes stopping and swerving drills, as well as Skidz School. But that course, priced at $120, is marketed to firefighters, rubbish companies and other businesses - not to teenagers.

"I do think they'd be better drivers if they did that," said Tim Cooney, executive director of the Central Massachusetts Safety Council. But, he said, "once kids have their licenses and are off and running, it's hard to get them back."

Mr. Cooney said he's not interested in getting RMV certification for the council's Advanced Driver Training program, the way In Control has done. To achieve certification, the council must widen its track and meet other requirements. "I think they're arbitrary dimensions," Mr. Cooney said.

Offering a four-hour course to teenagers also would disrupt the schedule for other classes held at the facility.

He pointed out that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also says Skidz School is bad for kids, but he stood by the program. "It's up to us to teach them that just because you've taken the course doesn't mean you do it on the highway," he said. "I think people are better off being prepared. It enhances that self-preservation mechanism."

Mr. Cooney praised In Control's rigorous course, but said "they're beholden to the insurance companies. We're not."

Rachel Kaprielian, the state's registrar of motor vehicles, said the RMV supports any program aimed at improving driver safety, including Skidz School. "Those are actual conditions that people feel on the road. Chances are, if you're driving long enough, you'll encounter those conditions."

Contact Priyanka Dayal by e-mail at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTOS; CHART

CUTLINE: (1) Driving instructor Linda Kogan drives through a slalom course with students during the In Control Advanced Driver Training course at the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth. (2) A car spins during a skid instruction class at the Central Massachusetts Safety Council in West Boylston. (3) Driving instructor Kevin Stromski teaches the classroom segment of the In Control Advanced Driver Training course at the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth. (4) Frank Riseden is a driving instructor at the Central Massachusetts Safety Council in West Boylston. (CHART) 10 tips for safe driving

PHOTOG: (1, 3) T&G StaffPhotos/RICK CINCLAIR (2, 4) T&G Staff Photos/DAN GOULD (CHART) T&G Staff/VILAYPHET KRUOCH