Teens and their parents got behind the wheel Saturday for a one of a kind driving experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway designed to keep folks alive.
The goal of the Zero Teen Fatalities driving course is to save lives by educating teens through behind the wheel training.
Saturday's class coincides with the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer, nationally recognized as the most dangerous time of the year for teens to be out on the roads.
“Kids are out of school, people are on vacation, people are driving at different times of night doing long road trips,” says Jeff Payne, of Driver's Edge.
The program brought out dozens of valley parents and their teens Saturday. Some parents, like Regina and Chris Grinsted, came all the way from the Bay Area just for the course.
“You have a lot of drivers on the road that don’t know how to react so by learning how to anticipate what may happen,” says mom Regina Grinsted.
Saturday's course put drivers to the test, maneuvering around traffic cones and driving through slick roads.
“You have to have a 'what if' mentality when you’re behind the wheel because eventually that 'what if' is going to happen and if you’re not ready for it you can become a statistic,” says Payne.
Parents say this kind of hands on training gives them peace of mind as their kids hit the road during the most dangerous time of the year.
“Just seeing that he was able to do that successfully a couple of times it gives us the confidence that once he gets out there if things go bad, he'll have the knowledge to help him get out of it,” says Grinsted.
