Driver’s Ed teachers at Ridgeline High School are preparing themselves for their drives with students this winter. Driving in the winter is challenging for even the most experienced drivers, so how do these new drivers do it? 

In an interview with former Driver’s Ed student Lexi Bradford about her experiences with this, she said, “I’m a good driver now, but [my instructor and the other student in the car] were terrified of me.” She even reported that her instructor “would hover his foot over the brake.” Though she made it through Driver’s Ed without anything bad happening, Lexi still feels very insecure driving in the snow. 

Considering Lexi’s viewpoint, one cannot expect the perspectives of the teachers to be much better. Rob Thomas, one of the driving instructors at Ridgeline, has had his share of bad drivers. Even though he isn’t teaching the class in school, he still goes on drives with students. When asked about the dangers of driving with new drivers, Thomas mentioned that he gets into a perilous situation with a kid “almost every time [he goes] out.” He said that the worst and least anticipated situations happen when he starts to relax while driving with a student, because they end up doing something stupid when he doesn’t expect it. This issue is exacerbated in the wintertime because of the ice and snow on the roads. 

Inexperienced drivers generally don’t know how to drive on the snow and ice, and this can lead to sliding and spinning out of control. Knowing this might lead one to wonder why Thomas still goes on drives with new drivers at Ridgeline. His response to this is, “The closer I am to death the more I feel alive!”