Students gain street smarts at local safe-driving course

Jim Parker
The Post and Courier

Rebecca Pogorzelski (left), a rising senior at Bishop England High School, completes the Street Survival driver course at the North Charleston Coliseum parking lot. Her father, Stan, (center) talks afterward with Stuart Kestenbaum, one of the event organizers.

Try this some time. Ring a colleague on your mobile, then chat with the device in one hand while the other guides 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 Rebecca, 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 acknowl-

edged.

At least in her case, the street survival test worked as it should.

That's important, since 13 percent of South Carolina teen drivers use cell phones behind the wheel, according to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study.

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 organizer, said 11 teenagers and young adults took part, many with parents in attendance. 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 a few minutes after the school ended and students got their certificates, usually with a proud dad or mom nearby.

"I think the parents enjoyed watching as much as the kids (driving)," Davis said.

Rebecca, for one, said the school was "a lot of fun. It was more than I expected."

The youthful motorists drove on their own as well as with instructors on a course marked with rubberized orange cones, set up in the North Charleston Coliseum parking lot. Along with the cell phone foray, the students were instructed to put their vehicles into a skid on a wet surface to get the feel of sliding and to learn how to steer out of a spin, all in a safe environment rather than in the middle of a traffic-filled roadway.

Rebecca said she would like to participate some day in an autocross, where motorists try for their fastest times negotiating a cone-lined road course.

"I thought it was great," said her father, Stan Pogorzelski, who takes part in autocross events in South Carolina. "It gave them a lot of exposure to everyday situations."