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The Teacher is a MONSTER!
How can you teach drivers the sickening feeling of helplessness one gets when the car they are tailgating slams on the brakes and their car crashes into it? How can you teach one to recognize that the car approaching on the interstate highway is going the wrong way at a closure rate of 200 feet per second and is destined for a head-on crash? How can drivers experience the consequences of going too fast into a curve? How can you convince a driver that releasing brake pressure prematurely or applying acceleration too early will cause loss of car control? How can drivers feel what its like to lose traction to the vehicle's tires? How do we teach drivers to prevent the loss of traction? How can drivers experience the nauseating feeling of being in the wrong lane position as a child darts out from in front of a parked car? How do you teach the hopeless despair of hitting a patch of black ice and having only a fraction of a second to correct the fishtailing car? How can we motivate a change in the high-risk driver? How can we shape drivers' perceptions of risk? How do you convince drivers of the importance of having their vision 30 seconds ahead of the car?
The Skid Monster can demonstrate all of the above listed situations very effectively, without leaving the parking lot! And, without traveling any faster than 15 mph! The Skid Monster is a powerful tool for prevention education. The Skid Monster, an invention of Professor Frederik Mottola, replaces the rear tires of a front-wheel drive car with two sets of castering wheels that are bolted to the rear tire lugs. While the car may be traveling only 15 mph, the castering wheels simulate driving four times that speed! The Skid Monster can simulate what happens when speed is too fast for road conditions or for traffic situations. The Skid Monster can handle just like a normal car until the instructor flips a switch to release the casters, and then the car, if it is mismanaged, becomes a MONSTER. The idea is to show how easy it is to keep the car in control as compared to getting it back in control once it becomes a monster. An analogy can be made to having a wild animal secured in a confined area and the ease and prediction of managing its existence, as compared to the animal having escaped its restraints and the difficulties and the unknowns of getting it back in control.
Elizabeth Taylor from Edmonds, Washington, who has trained over 3000 students and their parents in the Skid Monster, states: "The Skid Monster puts every driver on a level playing field, so to speak. It does not play favorites. For the brand new, never-steered-a car student, learning is accelerated ten times. What may take an hour to learn in a 'normal' instruction vehicle takes 10 minutes to learn in the Monster. It graphically illustrates the need to value, develop, nurture, and ultimately ingrain in the driver low-risk driving habits such as: Accurate targeting. Balanced hand position. Efficient steering technique. Smooth, gradual starts and stops. Awareness of targeting path, roadway conditions and camber. Wise speed selection when approaching turns and curves. Trail braking for balanced stops and turns. Prudent lane position choices. A four-second following time. And, skid recognition and recovery techniques are a bonus."
Steve Cramblitt, driver education curriculum supervisor for Granite School District in Utah, expects to have all 5000 students who take driver education each year get practice with the monster. He said: "It's as realistic as you can get while being in a safe environment. The more I use it, the more of a teacher I see the Monster is. The on-street progress of students after being in the Monster is remarkable." As another teacher stated, "The Monster compounds any mistakes a student makes and helps them learn how to perform correct behavior in the future."
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