After a surprising response from across the province to a small anti-skid school he put on a couple of weeks back, Gary Magwood thinks people may have woken up to the need for driver training.
The one-time racer and long-time driving instructor says he was asked by some people in Belleville to put on a skid school and ended up "boggled by the response. I got calls from all over the province and had to turn away over 100 folks."
Magwood rhetorically asks, "Has something changed in the past couple of years. Has the driving public realized that there is more to the process. Did the multi-car pileups over the past few months scare them into action?"
Whatever the motivation of the public, Magwood has decided to answer demand is there by setting up anti-skid schools at Ontario Place in Toronto on Feb. 19 and 20 and at Belleville's Loyalist College on March 5.
Either course costs $200 and can be arranged by contacting Magwood at 613-849-1976 or zabwood@kos.net.
Magwood says the course will be limited to 48 people and will be a four-hour in-car program that incorporates emergency braking, vision training and collision avoidance exercises.
"Driver education and training does not teach emergency driving techniques," Magwood points out. "So how do you handle a front wheel skid? How do you stop a vehicle on an icy highway? Can you avoid a vehicle that has run a red light? The DrivAbility Skid School covers all these situations and more," he says.