Free teen driver safety training at Richmond Raceway this weekend

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A nonprofit is bringing free teen driver safety training to Richmond Raceway Complex this weekend, offering hands-on instruction designed to reduce the risk of car crashes among new drivers.

BRAKES — Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe — will hold three-hour training sessions Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free program is open to teens and their parents.

Roger Campbell, the organization's East Coast training manager, said the program builds real-world driving skills through repetition and hands-on experience.

"There is nothing better than a well-trained driver," Campbell said.

The training combines 30 minutes of classroom instruction with three hours of behind-the-wheel exercises. Teens rotate through stations that target the leading causes of crashes among new drivers, including skid recovery, crash avoidance, panic braking, distracted driving, and drop-wheel recovery.

Campbell said the distracted driving exercise is one of the most eye-opening for participants.

"The minute we get in the car with them and say go, we will become the most obnoxious 15-year-old that's ever been put in the car because what we do is we try to do everything we can to distract them to prove to them that they cannot focus on two things at one time," Campbell said.

The program also uses impairment goggles to show participants what it is like to drive while impaired.

"The only reason we do that is, what we want to do is to show to them, hey, never get back in the car with somebody that's been impaired because this is what they see," Campbell said.

Campbell said the goal is to build muscle memory so that teens react correctly in dangerous situations before they encounter them on the road.

"If they drop off the side of the road out there in the real world and don't know how to fix it, it doesn't typically turn out well," Campbell said.

An independent study conducted by the University of North Carolina Charlotte found that teens who complete the program are 64 percent less likely to be involved in a crash within their first three years of driving. Campbell said 50 percent of all teenagers will be involved in a car crash before they graduate high school.

"The teens that had our 3.5-hour class came out with a 64% less likely chance of having a car crash just because of this class here," Campbell said.

BRAKES was founded in 2008 by drag racing champion Doug Herbert following the deaths of his two sons, Jon and James, in a car crash. Campbell said the program has since trained more than 250,000 teenagers across the United States.

"When you have kids that run into you years later and go, 'Hey, I came to your class, you probably don't remember me, but what you taught me saved my life.' Yeah, it's pretty cool," Campbell said.

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