Local business offers driving instruction
Posted on Sunday, September 2, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/52981/
ROGERS — With four children of her own, Kimma Harper knows it’s important to teach children about safety. When she opened her own business, it was only natural that she wanted to keep other people’s children safe as well. She’s in a position to do that by offering driver’s education through the Driving Academy of Northwest Arkansas.
Parents are sometimes too quick to let their teenagers drive, she said. Parents who are tired of driving their teens to multiple activities may not be thinking about safety when they let them borrow the family car. On average, a teenager needs 100 hours of driving experience before they’re truly safe behind the wheel. She has the statistics to prove it.
The Web site, www. drivingacademynwa. com, has links to sources that may scare the parents of new drivers. Teenagers account for 14 percent of all fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes, according to the Moorshire Group, the company that supplies Harper’s driving curriculum. In 2004, across the United States 16 to 20 year olds were involved in 185 crashes each hour, which is three crashes every minute.
A link to the Arkansas State Police Web site shows that in 2005, the two groups with by far the largest number of fatalities were 16 to 20 year olds and 21 to 25 year olds. Arkansas ranks high on the list of states with the most driving fatalities per miles driven. In 2005, Arkansas was ninth most dangerous state to drive.
Harper can help teen drivers with a comprehensive program that includes 30 hours of classroom instruction that she teaches in each city in the region; six hours of driving lessons in a 2007 Hyundai Sonata and a defensive driving course on a simulator.
The simulator, housed at Kent Dobbs Hyundai in Springdale, has two programs that take students through each step beginning with mirror adjustment and fastening seat belts, all the way to handling emergencies. Students progress through the steps one at a time, and the program will disqualify them if they make too many mistakes. When they finish there’s a printed read out that lets instructors and parents know what the student is doing wrong.
It’s a good way to start 14 year olds, Harper said. They can learn to drive without any risk of accidents.
But even after a teenager has completed the comprehensive program, they still need hands on experience, she said. Parents need to understand that they are their child’s primary driving teacher. Children who see their parents roll through stop signs and exceed the speed limit are learning those bad habits.
Kimma Harper does the classroom instruction. Her husband, Mike Harper, and one other teacher do must of the hands-on instruction. There are two other teachers who fill in, she said.
A surprising number of adults have been enrolled, she said. There are women who are learning to drive for the first time because of death or divorce and there have been several business people who have a license in another country and need to learn the rules of the road in the United States.
Adults can chose just one on one lessons or just the simulator, but anyone under 18 must take both the classroom portion and the hands on lessons. The simulator can be added.
When the course is complete, the student gets a certificate that often entitles them to a discount on insurance, but that’s just a bonus, Harper said. When the course is complete, the student will be a better driver and that’s why she’s in the business.