Follow up to my Sept. 2015 blog post: Driving with strangers while ridesharing….

In the time that has elapsed since my last post on the dangers of getting in a car with a total stranger see it here: more tragic events have been in the news. In Michigan an Uber driver named Dalton claimed that a “devil figure” on the Uber app was controlling him and driving him to kill on the days he committed the murders as stated by police. see the article here:
Michigan Uber Driver Pleads Guilty to Murdering Six People
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Dz4mTmWWoAUBYJxIn another incident Actor and Comedian Terrence K Williams posted a picture of himself in the hospital with a neck brace on and said, “Hey guys! It’s hard typing this. I have fractured neck and back some spine issues. My lyft Driver almost flew off the bridge. I’ll be staying at the hospital for a few days!” see article here:

 

 



With more time to see that the ridesharing experience has its real pitfalls I would only use the service as a last resort and have a mace canister on hand at all times. My experience has been that they drive bad and tailgate while their looking at their phones and now the stories are out that they can actually be a mass murderer and we wouldn’t know it.

5 Star Students do more then pass their drive test

Here are some jubilant 5 Star Driver students who just passed the drivers test. Their new found freedom is the source of their joy. The beauty of completing the 5 Star Driver video program is that these young drivers are way over trained past the minimum requirements of the DMV drive test they just completed. A student of ours today emailed us to say that he is a new licensed driver. He thanked us for the “exemplary drivers training”. I responded congratulating him and asked him to grade how hard the drive test was. On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the hardest. He responded a 1, only because the examiner smelled real bad. So once again the dumbed down 8 minute drive test showed this young driver that getting your license is not the only goal in this game.

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Autonomous Vehicles Are Hitting Road Blocks – Literally

Tesla Model X driver dies in Mountain View crash – https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-model-x-driver-dies-210300147.html
If Self driving vehicles were suppose to come to the rescue in our modern day world where humans drive worse than ever the Autonomous Vehicle technology is accumulating it’s own death toll. This recent article states: A Tesla vehicle is at the center of another tragic crash, and the company is coming under renewed scrutiny over safety concerns as a result. The driver of a Model X has died after his electric SUV collided with a median barrier on Highway 101 in Mountain View, regardless of the causes, the crash highlights the uncertainties surrounding the safety of electric cars, especially as they introduce autonomous features.

It is my opinion that the amount of money being spent on developing self driving cars could be spent in real drivers training and education. Coupled with more serious fines and legal ramifications for the blatant law breaking so many drivers do on a daily basis, i.e. red light runners, non hands free cell phone users, tailgaters, speeders, etc… Here is an example of superior drivers training with one of our video lessons showing a new driver where to keep their attention while driving between a wall and a semi truck on the freeway, a common fear of many drivers.

New Reality-RED LIGHT RUNNERS

Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Kills Texas Cheerleader in Thanksgiving Day DUI Crash – http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/illegal-immigrant-allegedly-kills-texas-cheerleader-thanksgiving-day-dui-crash/
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This news article reveals the new reality in America that brain dead drivers are running dead red stop lights. In this one of all too frequent stories a 14 year old was killed after a car driven by an illegal alien allegedly crashed into the back of her grandparents car. As a driving instructor who is out in traffic for many hours each week I can attest to the frequency in which people are blasting through solid red lights. Since I began driving 40 years ago drivers have always pushed through sometimes late yellow lights. This new dangerous trend of going no matter what on the red light is unacceptable. That type of wreck is most often deadly and if not, permanently disabling. The reasons are many, texting, people are actually face timing while driving, our elderly have strokes and heart attacks while driving, the rampant prescription drug use, drunks are still out there and now in my state of California the new legalization of marijuana will take its toll. The one factor that can be tracked statistically but no one mentions, is the allowance of 3,000,000 illegal aliens getting their licenses in the last three years. Many come from countries that have no right of way rules let alone Stop or Yield or Merging signs. So until I become King for a day to change some things we have a video lesson called Traffic Check that trains drivers how to spot and have a chance to survive this huge danger out on our roadways. Watch the video below.

[videojs poster=”http://5stardriver.com/blog/wp-content/videos/traffic-check.jpg” mp4=”http://5stardriver.com/blog/wp-content/videos/lesson4.mp4″]

My students drive better then licensed drivers

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The goal of our 5 Star Driver videos is to help families be the best drivers on the road today. When parents watch the video series with their young drivers they become better teachers and their kids become skilled drivers. Case in point, look at these wiped out car photos I took recently while on a driving lesson with a 16 year old student. We drove by a auto body shop that I go by on a weekly basis with students and this was the new collection of crashed vehicles from the previous New Years Holiday weekend. I had the student pull over and we got out to look and take pictures. The young driver was shocked how bad the damage was and wondered if lives were lost. As I have blogged about before being a so called “licensed driver” means nothing. Most people pass it off that wrecks are because of drunk drivers or speeding or distracted driving but those are easy excuses. I blog about how they are shoving self driving cars down our throats. Wake up public! Part of Making America Great Again is putting better more skilled drivers on the road so the auto body shops and ambulance companies and chiropractors and lawyers don’t benefit everyday from this type of carnage.

Traffic-related deaths are on the rise in 2016

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The link below is a story blaming the tech use in our cars on the uptick in traffic deaths for the first six months of 2016. Yes the narcissistic use of electronic devices while driving has become an epidemic in the U.S. but wait there’s more to the story. The lack of true knowledge and skill as it relates to driving has diminished in the last 20 years. At the same time the millennial generation is getting in the car with tunnel vision issues like no other generation before. The 8 to 15 hours a day spent looking at some type of screen coupled with the lack of physical activity throughout their childhood creates a tunnel visioned driver with bad reflexes. As a licensed driving instructor I am getting 3 out of 10 students in the car who say they have never ridden a bicycle in their entire lives. This is a real hindrance to driving as no natural scanning or right of way issues have been developed. They lack a proper knowledge of knowing where trouble can come from while at the same time not scanning properly to even see it in time. Add the mind numbed drivers all around us that have their eyes down while texting, Facebook posting or face timing while driving and it adds a more dangerous statistic to driving in our modern era than drunk drivers. F.Y.I. the drunkards are still out there. From my perspective being in a car teaching 8 hours a day I see more grown women on their phones and devices more than anyone else. I had a student recently share with me that it really irked him that both his parents text constantly while driving, saying they admonish him “don’t do this we have been driving for years”. Well this instructor of real skills driving techniques had to address this so when I was done for the day I texted the mother and shared her son’s frustration and said that in this arena walking the walk is the best teacher. To her credit she thanked me for the correspondence and admitted fault and said she would discuss the situation with her husband.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/11/15/report-traffic-deaths-rise-due-tech-distractions/

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How To Avoid Deadly Red Light Runners-like this one recently in Fresno, CA

FRIENDS SPEAK OUT AFTER WOMAN KILLED IN FRESNO CRASH

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Kelly Phetxoumphone, 23, was a passenger in her friend’s car when another car slammed into them at Palm and Ashlan early Sunday, killing her. (KFSN)

Watch local news story here
In the article below you can see that the driver who killed this beautiful young lady ran a red light. A term often used by police is a “dead red” which means it has been red for a long time. Our Creating A 5 Star Driver video series has a lesson on avoiding this type of t-bone crash that is becoming all too common. The lesson is titled Traffic Checking at Green Lights Because People are Running the Reds. It is a valuable lesson filmed in the training car with students demonstrating when to traffic check at all intersections and how that can avoid this type of tragedy.

Kelly Phetxoumphone, 23, was a passenger in her friend’s car when another car slammed into them at Palm and Ashlan early Sunday, killing her.
A scene of colorful balloons, pictures and candles sit on the corner where a fun night with friends ended in sirens and Phetxoumphone never making it home.
Sreyjet Choun was driving right behind her sister-in-law and friend that night.
“It’s my spring break and I go to UC Irvine so we always hang out together,” Choun said. “She was like my sister and it was like the last words she said was come follow us.”
They were heading to a friends house when California Highway Patrol officers say 21-year-old Lawrence Walker III didn’t stop at the red light.
“I was calling 911 knowing that, I told myself, she’ll be fine, she’ll be fine but I know she wouldn’t because I saw what happened,” Choun said. “That guy, he didn’t brake at all, he didn’t swerve at all. He just went straight.”
Another longtime friend, says Kelly’s positive attitude and warm smile were her greatest traits. “I still can’t believe it,” Kelly’s friend Solida Lain said. “It feels so unreal. It still hurts, it’s really shocking, and tragic.”
Kelly worked to support her family at a local restaurant. Now, her boyfriend of eight years is left with four young kids to raise without her.

 

Driving the # 1 killer of teens? No it is now 18 – 20 year olds

killer-of-teensI had an interesting conversation with a 19 year old driving student recently. While I was looking at his permit he said that he was confused and then angry by what was said when the DMV personnel handed him his permit a few days earlier. The man asked my student if he was going to now take his drive test. He responded: “how can I do that I just received my permit to drive?” The answer was “well a lot of people do.” My student said “but how would a person know how to drive yet?” The DMV representative explained that people drive illegally with family members and then take their written test and try and pass the drive test the same day. To my 19 yr. old young drivers credit he told him “that is stupid and only because you folks allow it.” I agree, so true and so wrong in many ways.

This absurd practice for licensing young adult drivers would explain the rise in death by a few years due to driving. The Graduated Licensing Program instituted years ago by the Department of Transportation does not apply to anyone above 18 years old. Passing the permit test and then having to wait 6 months before taking the drive test does not apply. Having a minimum of 6 hours of behind the wheel training with a driving school does not apply. Putting in an additional 50 hours of driving practice with a licensed 25 years of age or older teacher does not apply. Then the 18, 19, 20, year old takes the Dumber Than a 5th Grader 10 minute drive test to be licensed to drive. This ignorant driver is now licensed to cut me off in traffic, tailgate me up to a red light, not yield to me while entering a roundabout and dent my car as they park next to me at the shopping mall or much much worse.

So much of what is wrong with the way things have become is due to the governmental agencies tasked with making things smart and safe doing just the opposite. Our motivation in producing the high quality 5 Star Driver videos is to push past the cheap driving schools and the D.M.V.,” Department of Mental Vacancy” to put parents in charge of their children’s driver training. Take the time with your kid’s over a sixth month training period, watch the videos together from start to finish. The accelerated learning curve is remarkable! People can listen to the video testimonials on our www.5stardriver.com website of 5 Star Driver users, parents and their kids, to hear real driving success stories. The ultimate goal being to have young adults break through the grim statistics when it comes to their early years of driving. So important at a time when driving has become a greater challenge than ever before.

Real behind the wheel training vs NOT

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This is the look of stress brought on by parents who often have no idea on how to do real behind the wheel training with their kids. Click on this short video to see what took place between this dad and daughter. [videojs width=”560″ height=”315″ preload=”true” youtube=”https://youtu.be/Koq47HWL7SU”]

Knowing how to drive and teaching it are two completely different things. The person tasked with teaching a loved one or friend to drive whether it be a parent or grandparent or college roommate has a lot to risk in this endeavor. Their own safety, the safety of the new driver and often times it is their vehicle that is open to damage if things go badly. As a licensed driving instructor I once had a teenager who by the time I was hired to do his behind the wheel training had crashed through his garage door after taking a little drive through their neighborhood with his mom. He then panicked after hitting the garage door and mashed the gas pedal and proceeded to go through the back wall into their kitchen. Nobody drove with the young man for a year. After a year his Uncle said he could get him driving and took a try at it. He crashed into a fire hydrant while making a turn two blocks from their house. Then they decided to hire a professional. Lucky for them they hired an instructor trained in the Cullington Driving Concepts®, which is a new superior way to avoid the pitfalls where parents point out the problem instead of the answer. Look at this cartoon video that is spot on with what has been wrong with our behind the wheel training since the beginning. [videojs width=”560″ height=”315″ preload=”true” youtube=”https://youtu.be/bIvmrJBwcps”]

When teaching someone to drive, mentioning where you don’t want them to take the car is the biggest mistake. By saying, “You’re heading towards the only other car in the parking lot” you focus the driver’s eyes and or attention on that object and many times this is how the unhappy episode begins. Our www.5StarDriver.com program has eleven hours of video showing all types of driving situations with new drivers using effective dialogue and instructions that guarantees accelerated success. This results in less frustration and stress between the behind the wheel student and teacher. Here is a clip of proper dialogue that works. [videojs width=”560″ height=”315″ preload=”true” youtube=”https://youtu.be/bwaW12JkZ-A”]

The Creating A 5 Star Driver Beyond Drivers Ed® program is the most effective video driver training available for parents and their new drivers. It was developed to get parents much more involved in the important task of behind the wheel training with their kid’s. The experts @ 5 Star Driver were tired of the never ending statistics of young drivers passing a 10 minute drive test and soon becoming a driving statistic. Parents have put too much faith in cheap driving schools that don’t teach much. Parents also have good intentions on getting in the needed practice time with their children but most often do not. They hope that their kids will be ok out there. At the end they think, well they passed the drive test they must be ready. Parents must know that the DMV drive test has been reduced to a lame example of a person’s true driving ability. Please know my own two children on their drive tests were never asked to make a lane change, didn’t show that they could do a U-turn or never even had to do a 3 point turn. My son made only right turns on his 8 minute drive route. My daughter was angry how easy her drive test was. She knew I had trained her to be a 5 Star Driver and was wanting a real drive test. Parents please get serious about your children’s behind the wheel training.
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Video Drivers Training Works Because Parents Are A Big Part Of The Problem

parents-problemIn California a provisional license issued to a teenager requires that a parent has done a minimum of 50 hours of driving with their kids. Only 17 percent of parents even do the 50 hours. In an exit survey at various DMV’s throughout California three years after the Graduated Licensing program was instituted by the Department of Transportation 17% of parents admitted they did the required hours. The DMV heralded this GLP as the answer to preparing the next generation of drivers for the challenges of modern day traffic. Yea well not so much, it is all based on the honor system that by signing the youths permit as a promissory verification the parent had their child ready to be an educated skilled driver.

The Video Drivers Training contained in the Creating A 5 Star Driver Beyond Drivers Ed program puts valuable tools in front of parents and their young drivers. This helps to assure that the important additional drive time in real traffic conditions takes place on a regular basis. The common yelling episodes of behind the wheel time with parents and their kids is not conducive to serious training. The challenges of driving are greater than ever before and parents are dropping the ball when it comes to being driver trainers for their children. The video lessons give an insight to new drivers with their parents on what to expect before all elements of driving happen. Each video lesson progresses in so the proper knowledge and skills are in place as more challenging driving situations present themselves. The lessons were filmed with five in car cameras on actual driving lessons and teach the proper dialogue and training techniques that brings success. This greatly reduces stress in the car for everyone involved.

The driving experts of the 5StarDriver.com program after years of working in the driving school industry determined that parents were not comfortable putting in the necessary time training their kids to drive. So instead of opening up hundreds of top rate driving schools, which are in short supply, we developed this first of its kind Video Driver Training program that we offer to the entire nation. Through our website www.5StarDriver.com we sell our complete driving course on DVD which includes our question and answer manuals. Also offered is our monthly video subscription of the entire course accessible 24/7 anywhere internet is available.

It is well beyond time for a program that can raise the standard of America’s drivers training. The cheap driving schools don’t teach, parents don’t spend near enough time in the car with their kids and the D.M.V. drive test averages 10 minutes. The Video Drivers Training lessons through the 5 Star Driver program empower parents to teach driving the way it was supposed to be.