Cruise Control Driving School awards four scholarships

Danielle Lodge is the daughter of Scott and Diane Lodge of Summerville. Danielle had been thoroughly involved in all facets of school as the vice-president of her sophomore class and president of her junior and senior classes as well as a member of numerous clubs. She’s been active in community charitable organizations as well and participated in mission trips domestically and internationally. Danielle placed in the 99th percentile nationally with her college placement scores. She will attend Duke University and major in health science and global health to become a career medical professional.

Ballard DeHaven is the son of Jed and Melanie DeHaven of North Charleston. Ballard was a three-time captain/co-captain of his varsity swim team and won a state championship his senior year in the 200 yard freestyle relay. Academically, his college placement scores placed him in the 96th percentile nationally in math. He was also a regular volunteer for the Lowcountry Food Bank his senior year. Ballard will attend the University of South Carolina where he will major in business and plans a career in commercial real estate and development.

Ryan Mazalatis is the son of Larry and Kathy Mazalatis of Summerville. Ryan’s numerous accolades at Pinewood include being the captain of the Quiz Bowl team which won three SCISA state championships and he also attended two national competitions. He also attended Duke’s International Law camp at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. Ryan was his school’s valedictorian and will attend Georgetown University to study Spanish and pre-med and plans a career in medicine.

Jason West is the son of John and Leslie West of Summerville. Jason was involved in numerous activities at Ashley Ridge including the National Honor Society as well as the English, science and German honor Societies. He also participated in the Quest Team for Social Studies. Jason will attend Clemson and major in engineering and, following graduation, plans to pursue requirements to become an airline pilot.

The scholarships were awarded based on a compilation of applicants’ academic achievement, extracurricular activities, community service, and SAT/ACT scores, as well as their DMV-certified driving record. The students also had to write an essay on their career plans as well as the obstacles they expected and plans to overcome them.

Cruise Control Driving School owners Jeff Porter and Kent Lee began awarding the scholarships 13 years ago because it is the community’s students who are responsible for the great success of their business, recently recognized as the largest driving school in the tri-county area per number of student road tests conducted.

Brakes on Driving Schools... or on ALL learner drivers?

The recent article in the People’s post dated 24 May 2016 titled “Brakes on Driving schools” reports several allegations made against driving schools operating at the Athlone Stadium parking area. All of which create the impression that these businesses have acted illegally and which effectively accuses them of "squatting" on City land.

The article quotes Yvette Tsolo the City’s head of facilities as stating that the driving schools have no formal agreement (to be there) with the City. It goes on to state that the fencing has been damaged by vehicles used by driving schools, including trucks and that trucks pose a weight bearing problem to the surface of the lot. It then invokes our need to protect the children who use it as a thoroughfare because the “various vehicles on the site could pose an immediate safety risk.”

Several of these statements need to be challenged quite directly. The impression created is that these driving schools are businesses that operate outside of the law. This, to my layman’s thinking would render them criminal. If the City asserts that these schools have acted illegally in any way then it begs answering why nothing has been done in the way of prosecution of these “offenders”?  What is the illegal action or behaviour these schools are guilty of? What laws have been broken? Importantly, what evidence is there to support this allegation?

Every vehicle driver passing the Stadium is able to access the parking area without restriction or access control of any kind as has been the case since the stadium was first constructed. Notwithstanding the fact that fences have been damaged and clearly so by vehicles, I would challenge the City to prove that any damage caused to its recently (2013) erected fencing was in fact caused by  vehicles of driving schools “including trucks”.

Surely if this statement were true in any respect and the City was aware of the culprit being a formal business I would like to think that in the interest of good governance and as custodian of public property, it would have instituted proceedings against that culprit to recover the cost of repairs.

If it has such proof then let it provide it and let it recover the costs of such damage from the culprit/s responsible for such damage and also charge the officials in charge at the stadium who are clearly in dereliction of their duty to protect the public property/strategic asset in their custody.

If it has no such proof then its officials should unconditionally apologise to all the schools accused from as public a platform as the one from which they chose to utter these as yet unsubstantiated remarks.

Claiming that unladen trucks pose a threat to the surface of the parking lot again evokes a sense of concern but more so as an indictment of the City than of the driving schools. How is it possible that the City could approve the construction of a parking area, initially intended to be part of a Soccer World Cup venue and not insist that it could bear the weight of heavy vehicles like buses, which I can only imagine would be fully laden.

Are we now really to believe that heavy vehicles like buses could cause the stadium parking area to collapse and if so, what does that say about the provision of substandard facilities to the people of Athlone?  Normally substantially heavily overloaded trucks have been known to cause subsidence, but empty trucks carrying only a learner and instructor? Really?

There are always safety concerns when people learn to drive. This risk is compounded by parents who allow their children to run in the streets unsupervised. It is compounded by a complete lack of adequate traffic law enforcement and it will be further compounded by forcing learners to get behind the wheel for the very first time on actual roads with other traffic. Learner drivers, I would argue pose less of a risk on a parking area than they would on a normal road so how exactly does this decision make the area safer? 

Given the motivation for the decision provided by your article and attributed to Ms Yvette Tsolo of the City, I have to suspect that these “reasons”, generalizations and assumptions mask some ulterior motive behind this administrative action by public officials.

While dealing with all these speculative comments from the City, lets speculate a little of our own. What if they want to establish a flea market there? or What if they have been offered R100k per month to put an advertising tower there?  What if they are quite prepared to rip up the parking area completely to build it?  What if they need a reason to require the tar to be lifted? But hey let’s not get ahead of ourselves just because their stated reasons don’t add up or lack substance.

For now every driving school blanket banned and accused of illegal activities without a shred of evidence being provided of such wrongdoing on their part should simply seek to have the City officials concerned provide each of them with reasons for this administrative action (as it relates to their specific businesses and not a generalization) which compromises their livelihood. Section 5 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act allows for this and also requires the administrator concerned to respond.. 

There are also remedies available to every school operating at the stadium parking area whose reputations have been drawn into disrepute by the libellous comments and unsubstantiated utterances about their alleged unlawful behaviour.

While we could get into Mr Montanus’ comments it is appreciated that holding a City tender may not always allow one the freedom to state one’s mind. Interestingly he did mention that there have been no complaints about the driving schools in the “more than five years” he has operated in the area. Really? What about the danger alleged by the City?

I therefore cannot help but ask…does the City Management actually know the basic laws applicable to open space whether owned privately or publicly? It certainly appears that they do not and so it needs to be explained so that the innocent businessmen who have been labelled as criminals by their mere presence on the parking area do not have their reputations further damaged by ill-informed and poorly chosen remarks by those who should know better.

The stadium until 2013 had no fence around any of its parking areas. As a consequence of this failure to fence the area and restrict access to the parking area by the general public, it fell squarely within the definition of  “public road” as contemplated in the Road Traffic Ordinance 21/1966 the Road Traffic Act 29/1989 and also its successor in law, the National Road Traffic Act 93/1996.

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Nevada among top 10 safe states for teen drivers

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

At Valley High School, driver’s education is classroom instruction only.

So it was a rare sight Friday when driver’s ed teacher Michael Grady set up cones in the parking lot to give onlooking students a lesson in parallel parking.

“They can’t be in the car with me … This is the best we can do with the current setup,” he said.

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT?

Grady has been teaching the rules of the road for 30 years.

He’s been in Las Vegas for only two of those years, teaching the subject through the Clark County School District and the A-1 Driving School, but he already has a solid grasp on the lay of the land when it comes to teens and driving.

Which is why he finds it “hard to believe” that a recently released study by CarInsurance.com ranked Nevada in the top 10 among states for providing the safest environment for teen drivers.

“That would be a shock,” Grady said. “From what I’ve seen in my two years, people are aggressive — very aggressive on the road. Few people respect the speed limit or use turn signals, and you have visitors who are coming to visit us for a short time and are not familiar with the Spaghetti Bowl.”

Grady, who came from teaching an after-school driver’s ed course in Washington state, is a proponent of in-person interaction.

The online courses accepted by the state Department of Motor Vehicles are not enough, he said.

“If Kylee (a student) has a question, I’d like to think I can answer it for her, but online, are they really getting the information they need?” he asked. “I want to make sure we give them as much information as we can give them to prepare them for the DMV test, and make sure they are safe, defensive drivers.”

STAYING AWAY FROM FREEWAY

To identify the best and worst states for teen drivers, CarInsurance.com analyzed the following:

■ Number of teen driver fatalities per 100,000 population

■ Effectiveness of graduated driving license (GDL) components

■ Teen drinking and driving rates

■ Teen emailing/texting and driving rates

■ Average annual insurance costs for teen drivers

While the study did not expressly address whether a state is pedestrian-friendly, Kevin Moore, Zero Teen Fatalities program manager, believes Nevada’s ranking may be fueled by the experience teens get behind the wheel, especially in Las Vegas.

“Neither Las Vegas, or Reno, our other large city, are pedestrian-friendly cities,” he said. “ Any teen who learns how to drive in Las Vegas is experiencing 10 times more driving traffic situations as when they travel to other cities. Volume is so much larger than other cities in the state. Teens get a better foundation for driving if they learn in Las Vegas. It’s definitely scary, but it’s going to make you a better driver.”

Grady disagrees.

“This town is very difficult,” he said. “We have so many people in a tight area. I stay away from it (the freeway), unless parents ask me to give them a more challenging environment.”

He said parents are afraid to teach their children how to drive in Las Vegas, which is why they seek Grady’s help through A-1 Driving.

“I haven’t gotten on the freeway much,” said 17-year-old Kylee Coombs. “My dad wants me to avoid it until I really need to. This summer, I’ll be driving to work, and I’ll have to go through the Spaghetti Bowl.”

He advises his students to stay away from the hot spots such as freeways, especially during morning and evening rush hours.

“Friday and Saturday nights on the freeway in Las Vegas is a very scary place to be,” he said. “They have to make adjustments and stay away from those areas.”

STRENGTHENING LAWS

According to the study, Nevada could cut its teen fatal crash rate by 24 percent if a stricter GDL law was in place.

“I definitely feel the graduated license law has made a positive effect on our young drivers,” Moore said. “But we can make GDL more robust and set minimum standards, and ensure teens meet the minimum requirements before they get a full driver’s license.”

One component of Nevada’s current law does not allow teen drivers to have passengers under the age of 18 for the first six months after they receive their licenses. Moore said he would like to see that period extended to a full year.

In Nevada, of the 39 fatalities in crashes involving a young driver in 2014, 19 were drivers between the ages of 15 and 20; six of the fatalities were passengers in that age range; and five fatalities were passengers over 21, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Passengers are the No. 1 distraction for teen drivers,” Moore said. “Simply adding one passenger under the age of 21 increases their risk of getting into an accident by 50 percent. Every time they add another teenage passenger, the percentage continues to go up.”

Grady, however, believes cellphones are a teen’s biggest distraction and that the problem will only continue to worsen.

“Kids admit that they cannot help but be on their phones, and that naturally carries over into the car,” he said.

Grady and Moore agree, however, that the GDL laws can only do so much, especially when students wait till they turn 18.

According to data provided by the DMV, there were 8,256 16-year-olds with a license in July 2002; in July 2015, the number dropped to 5,461.

“In my experience, I’m finding when I go and talk to teenagers in school, a lot of them are circumventing the graduated licensing law,” he said. “If you wait till you’re 18, you don’t have a meet those requirements anymore. You just have to pass the test and you get full driving privileges.”

Moore said he believes those who do this are finding themselves in situations “they simply aren’t prepared for.”

Grady believes the decision is tied to a lack of money on the part of the student and their family, with some online DMV courses costing $200.

Because of Valley High School’s socioeconomics, the school has made the driver’s ed course — although it lacks a hands-on portion — a priority, Grady said.

“You see kids driving illegally now, because they can’t afford it, and the pressure is on them to help their family out,” Grady said.

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