Ford Driving Skills Offers Free Training for Newly Licensed Drivers
New Ford vehicles have dozens of passive and active safety features to
help keep you safe on the road. However, even with systems like Adaptive Cruise
Control, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Keep Assist, and Blind Spot Monitoring
in new Ford cars from your Southern
California Ford Dealers, newly licensed teens make up a disproportionately
large segment of those involved in crashes.
That’s where Ford Driving Skills comes into play. For the 17th
year, Ford Driving Skills for Life is touring the United States to offer more
than 80 sessions aimed at safe-driving training. This year, 18 cities are
included in the national tour.
What
Ford Driving Skills for Life is About
The Ford Driving Skills for Life tour offers free instruction for newly
licensed drivers by pairing them with professional driving instructors. During
these clinics, driving instructors are to work through key areas with program
participants in areas like vehicle handling, space management, distraction,
speed, and impairment. These areas are common factors for collisions involving
teens and are skills and details that aren’t part of typical driver education
courses.
Not only is it real-world safe-driving training with a professional
instructor, but it looks at other mobility issues that can affect safety like
sharing the road with cyclists, safely operating electric scooters, and knowing
proper safety for ride-sharing.
Tackling
Distracted Driving
An increasingly common concern is distracted driving – namely, using a
mobile device while behind the wheel. Generation Z drivers recognize that it’s
a serious offense and should be penalized heavily, but 62 percent of Generation
Z drivers in the US still do it.
Ford Driving Skills takes aim at the issue, working to raise awareness
of this risky behavior to help prevent accidents by newly licensed drivers.
Ford
Driving Skills Academy
Vehicle safety doesn’t start in the driver’s seat. Ford Driving Skills
also offers an online Ford Driving Skills Academy in partnership with the
Governors Highway Safety Association. Providing resources and training for both
teens and parents.
Informative videos aim to guide newly licensed drivers through typical
scenarios to encourage advanced vehicle safety. They’re tested on their
knowledge and receive certificates for completing modules.
Jonathan Adkins, executive director for Governors Highway Safety
Association, said, “Teen and new driver inexperience often result in dangerous
behaviors such as speeding, alcohol use and not wearing a seat belt – all of
which contribute to increased risk for new drivers. For this reason, the
association and State Highway Safety Offices are looking forward to bringing
this powerful program to even more teens and their parents – coast to coast and
around the globe.”
Where
Does Ford Driving Skills for Life Stop in California?
For 2020, the Ford Driving Skills for Life tour stopped in Anaheim,
California for half-day sessions on February 15th and 16th.
Morning and afternoon sessions for both days were completely packed, each
holding 115 registrants.
Ford Driving Skills for Life is expanding in 2020 with training sessions
planned in more than 30 countries worldwide.
