The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer: How Tire Rack Street Survival Keeps Teen Drivers Safe
Summer is when a lot of teenagers get behind the wheel for the first time without a parent in the passenger seat, and it is also, statistically, the most dangerous stretch of the year to do it. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, crash deaths involving teen drivers climb sharply enough that safety groups have nicknamed the stretch the “100 Deadliest Days of Summer.” One program working to change that outlook, Tire Rack Street Survival, is holding hands-on teen driving clinics across the nation. We recently spoke with the head of Mazda safety to hear what Mazda is doing to make its vehicles safer, but it is worth a closer look at what makes this teen driver safety training different from a standard driver’s ed class.
The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer for Teen Drivers
AAA’s review of national crash data found that teens are about 20 percent more likely to be in a fatal crash during the summer months compared to the rest of the year, and on average eight people die every day in a teen-related crash between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Add a passenger or two and the odds get worse fast: a teen driver’s risk of a fatal crash roughly doubles with one peer in the car and triples with two or more. Longer daylight hours, more road trips, and fewer school-day routines all add up to more time behind the wheel with less supervision, right when new drivers need it most.
What Tire Rack Street Survival Actually Teaches
Tire Rack Street Survival is a national nonprofit program for permitted and licensed drivers ages 15 to 21, and its curriculum goes well beyond parallel parking. Students practice accident avoidance, emergency braking, skid control, and how to recover from unintended oversteer and understeer, the kind of split-second maneuvers that a standard driver’s ed course rarely covers in depth. Classroom lessons lay out the reasoning behind each skill, then students head to a closed course to put the concepts into practice.
Why Learning in Your Own Car Matters
One detail sets this program apart from a lot of driving schools: students train in their own daily driver, not a rental or a school fleet car. A teenager who learns to control a skid in an unfamiliar sedan has not necessarily learned to control a skid in the family SUV they will actually be driving to school on Monday. Every exercise runs with a trained volunteer coach riding along, so students get real-time feedback while learning the specific feel, weight, and limits of the car they drive every day.
A Program With Real Results
Street Survival started in 2002 after members of the BMW Car Club of America Foundation noticed a gap between what new drivers were taught and what they actually needed to know to stay safe. Since that first class, the program has trained more than 21,000 young drivers, with schools run by volunteers from the BMW Car Club of America and Canada, the Porsche Club of America, the Sports Car Club of America, the National Corvette Museum, and other enthusiast clubs. It’s a good reminder that the car community’s love of driving well can double as a genuine public safety effort.
Sessions Across America
Registration is open now through the Street Survival website, and the program costs $175 per student, a modest price for a full day of instruction that could prevent a far more expensive mistake down the road.
How Parents Can Get Involved
Families outside the Philadelphia area should not count themselves out. Street Survival runs schools across the country throughout the year, and the organization’s website lists upcoming sessions by location so parents can find one closer to home. If a new driver in your house got a permit or license this year, signing up for a session before school starts back up is one of the more useful ways to spend a Saturday together this summer.