Young drivers master street survival school

Try this sometime. Ring a colleague on your mobile, then chat with the device in one hand and the other hand guiding a sport utility vehicle through a twisting road course.

Rebecca Pogorzelski did just that July 12 at the Tire Rack Street Survival School in North Charleston. "They made us drive talking on the cell phone," said Pogorzelski, a rising senior at Bishop England High School who has been behind the wheel for nearly two years and pilots a 2002 Ford Escape. "It was a lot harder (than with both hands free)," she said.

At least in her case, the street survival test worked as it should. The day-long course last Saturday showed young drivers what can happen on the road and how to react.

Tire Rack auto retailer, the South Carolina region of the Sports Car Club of America, Rick Hendrick BMW and the BMW Car Club of America Foundation combined to sponsor the school, which according to organizers was taking place in the Charleston area for the first time.

Brad Davis, general manager of Hendrick Imports in Charleston and an event organizer, said 11 teenagers and young adults took part, many with a parent or parents in attendance. Participants came from as far away as Columbia, Charlotte and Savannah. He said the young drivers clearly absorbed what they learned during the eight hour course. "The change from what they knew in the morning to what they know now is phenomenal," he said.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.