Youths get tips for safe driving in emergencies

Amid what's known as the "100 Deadliest Days for Teens," 42 mostly teenage drivers negotiated complex obstacle courses in the Nassau Coliseum parking lot Saturday in a bid to make themselves safer on the roads.

The Tire Rack Street Survival program cites driver inexperience as a key factor in deaths of teens on the roads in the tristate region and nationwide, with 13 teens killed nationwide each day of the summer months, according to the group.

Launched by the nonprofit BMW Car Club of America Foundation in 2002, the group uses volunteers from the club's local chapters to pair with students and guide them through safety cone-lined courses.

The 42 young people, ages 16 to 21, who participated Saturday, took their own cars - or their parents'. Their goal: gain better awareness of their own car's handling limits, and practice skills required in accident situations - emergency braking, swerving and skid control.

The all-day event began with a lecture on the physics of maneuvering cars at high speeds, followed by a few hours driving five different courses.

"It's all about giving them 'muscle memory,' " said Matthew Brod of North Bellmore, street survival coordinator for the New York club chapter. "Just like kicking a ball or swinging a golf club, if you practice something enough, your body learns how to do it without thinking."

For one exercise - the "skid pad" - drivers had to negotiate a tight circle coated with sand designed to make their vehicle spin out. In a simulated "highway ramp" scenario, drivers had to practice getting off and on a highway at high speeds.

The "slalom" taught hand control by requiring a driver to quickly weave in and out of cones, while the "reverse" had them drive backward through an obstacle course using only mirrors. An "accident avoidance" exercise required the drivers to react quickly in response to a last-minute direction from their instructor to swerve left or right.

"Driving is boring 99 percent of the time, but then there's that 1 percent where really quick decisions must be made," said Richard Wilcox, 50, of West Caldwell, N.J., who accompanied his son Skylar, 18.

Andre Noel, president of the New York chapter of the BMW club, said teens who have been in accidents often took the course to regain confidence.

That was the case Saturday for Amanda Kleinfeldt, 18, of Claremont, Fla., involved in a collision last year. "Driving in these courses has really taken me out of my comfort zone . . . but I'm already feeling like I have more control over the car."