We end the deep dive this week into South Carolinas traffic issues with a look at the Guard Your Life Challenge, a program focused on preparing young drivers for potential emergency situation.
One student who previously went through the program said he immediately made use of the lessons as he hydroplaned on his rainy drive home.
“We started this program back in December of 2012. In July of 2012, we lost my 16-year-old daughter, Victoria Humphries, in a car accident; she was 16,” said John Humphries, who started the program alongside his wife after the lost of their daughter. “We just didn’t want another family to go through what our family experienced.”
The program aims to prepare young drivers for emergency situations, such as hydroplaning and high speed stops, by giving them real experiences in a controlled environment.
The program holds two 15-person classes on four separate Saturdays each year at the BMW Performance Driving School, where professional instructors actually take students out on the campus’s track.
While the program has as many as 100 kids on the waiting list now, the early history of the program over a decade ago was much slower.
“When we started out, we had trouble getting kids here. We were calling people, and it was very difficult to fill classes,” Humphries said. “As time has gone on, a lot of word of mouth. We’re starting to see a lot of parents bring their second and third kids back. And so now we typically fill up in fives minutes of registration going live.”
You can listen to the full interview with John Humphries below:
The class itself involves a BMW instructor delivering a brief informative lecture on safe driving practices and proper methods for correcting a car in emergency situations. The kids are then given the chance to safely experience those situations and practice what they learned.
“Most of your driver’s ed is based around etiquette on the roadways, sign recognition. We just don’t teach the kids what the emergencies are gonna happen out there on the interstate,” said James Brookshire, one of the instructors at the BMW Performance Driving School. “We’re hopefully putting them in a situation where it’s ingrained in their mind that, when they feel that again, they generally know what to do and increase their chances of surviving out there on the highways.”
You can listen to the full interview with James Brookshire below:
“When kids get out of here, I hope it makes them safer driver and makes them more comfortable behind the wheel,” Humphries said. “I just would not want another family to lose a child, and that’s our main focus.”
