Teen driving school gives hands-on experience

Nonprofit born out of tragedy turns founder's personal experience into a positive movement to bring safe driving techniques and real-world experience to teenagers and their parents.

SAN MARCOS — Tragedy has turned into inspiration as thousands of teenagers get more hands-on driving lessons through a national nonprofit.

Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe held a two-day road safety training program for 180 teenagers at California State University San Marcos. The goal is to inform students of correct driving habits, safety vehicle inspections, and much more through a 30-minute classroom session and two hours of performing driving maneuvers to avoid spinouts, collision avoidance, and off-road recovery, to name a few.

The program featured three sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday and will return to CSUSM on Dec. 9-10, according to spokesman Jeff Perlman. (To register, visit here) Students must have a valid license or permit and the class requires a refundable $99 deposit, which can also be donated to the organization.

“We’re able to train about 180 students per weekend,” Brendon Short, B.R.A.K.E.S’. director of staffing for the West Coast, said. “We have about 36 students per session and five sessions per weekend. We’re not teaching basics, we’re teaching more advanced stuff.”