Home  News Latest Skid Monster teaches kids control behind the wheel
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Skid Monster teaches kids control behind the wheel |
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By Jonathan Martin
The Spokesman-Review
Chuck Filippini's car once hit black ice and pinwheeled out of control. The North Central High driver's education instructor leapt from the mouth of disaster, safely slamming into a roadside snowbank outside of Selkirk.
But he hopes to teach his students how to avoid such accidents and, with the purchase of a contraption called the Skid Monster, he has a unique teacher's aid.
Rather than explain how to steer on black ice, Filippini uses the machine, which attaches onto the back of a regular car and simulates the chaos.
"When you get into an emergency situation, it's all instinct," said Filippini. "We're taking this from a classroom situation to a real life situation."
All District 81 students will get a spin in the Skid Monster at the Spokane Community College parking lot. Filippini helped the district get the machine through a grant from Safeco Insurance Co.
Teaching students how to control skids usually requires special facilities or unpredictable situations, like iced parking lots.
The Skid Monster replaces the rear tires of a car with two small wheels that can spin freely. When released, the wheels send the car into a wild spin.
Driver instructors can control the spin with the flick of a switch. One moment, you're coasting comfortably at 20 mph; the next, you're backwards.
"Going one mile per hour too fast, we can show a teenager that they can't control the car," said Fred Mottola, professor of public health at Southern Connecticut State University and inventor of the Skid Monster.
Parents can appreciate that. "I have a 16-year-old with a driver's license, and I'm wondering about putting him back through driver's education," said Superintendent Gary Livingston.
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