Two ways to supplement a teen driver’s actual behind-the-wheel training time are simulators and high performance driving programs.  Each has a benefit.  If we conceive of driving as the experience of reacting correctly to the complex and rapidly-changing circumstances of maneuvering a car through the vehicles, signs, signals, structures, barriers, pedestrians, and weather that drivers routinely encounter, then a simulator helps because it corrects and refines reactions and improves timing.  High performance driving schools, in a “closed course” or “closed environment,” teach reactions to sudden or emergency situations such as taking evasive action to avoid a crash or turning the wheel and using the brakes to counteract a skid.  In particular, high performance schools allow drivers to practice emergency response in a way and in a place that generally can’t be replicated by a parent or even a Driver’s Ed instructor.

I am not an expert in the use or mechanics of simulators or the type of training that high performance schools provide, but parents should be forewarned of one obvious fact about each type of training:  simulators to a degree, and more likely skid control practice, may give teen drivers a false sense of security, a feeling that he or she can now drive faster, take turns more sharply, or otherwise push the envelope of vehicle controls because they have received extra training about how to react in a potential crash situation.  High performance driving practice can be exhilarating – not what we want in a new driver.

My own son’s crash illustrates the dilemma.  He died because when his car skidded, he did what one not trained to respond to a skid would do; he overcorrected.  On the other hand, had he gone to skid school, would he have driven more aggressively at other times, thinking that he would react correctly if his car fishtailed?

No clear answer, just a heads up.

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